Martin has lived in Maidstone all his life and has been self-employed for the past 36 years.

Full statement

A Rotarian since 2007 and before that in Round Table, Martin currently runs a print, design and multimedia business from his shop just off the Sutton Road. He has 2 children, a daughter currently studying Business at Bath university and a son who is at Valley Park School doing A levels. Even though his children have left East Borough he will still give his support to them when asked, he can be seen around the ward virtually on a daily basis.

Martin was spurred on to stand for Councillor in 2011 after the Conservatives announced their plans to 'renovate' the High Street and their cuts to front line services. He immediately found himself as the centre of Lib Dem literature production. On the Council, Martin has sat on all committees bar Licensing and Communities Housing and Environment. In 2017 he was relieved to see the committee system that the Lib Dems fought for to give Maidstone a more democratic system to the residents of the Borough become our system of democracy.

Since 2018 Martin has been both Leader of the Liber Democrat Group on the Council and was voted by fellow councillors to be Leader of the Council at the AGM in May of the same year. The skills and abilities of the people who he has surrounded himself with to Chair the Committees and form and Strategic Plan for the foreseeable future are not all Liberal Democrats. They are the right people to get the job done and steer us in the right direction. We are fortunate to have a fine team of officers and directors that carry out the work needed, day in day out.

Martin is proud of all the work he has done so far, as well as being the 3rd generation of Councillors in his family (both his father Paul Cox and grandfather Percy Barden were councillors in the 1960s), but as always, there is more to be done.

“The best way to serve our residents and council is to get the job and the work needed, done with as little politics as possible. To work together, with those elected by you all, is both a privilege and an honour. It is a job that I will carry out with positivity, truth, fairness and continued value of fairness for everyone in the Borough”.