Cllr. Dave Austin

I have been working as a freelance presenter since 1988. Following a decade as a BBC sound engineer, I swapped to the other side of the mic and started presenting for BBC Radio Kent. My first show was Drivetime, followed by the lunchtime Newshour and then, from 1992, I hosted breakfast following the departure of the much loved Barbara Sturgeon to Radio 2. During this time I did a lot of other work; out of vision continuity for Eurosport, a cable TV chat show and hosting many conferences and corporate events. I left the Beeb in 1994 to train as a facilitator in the USA and then embarked upon a long contract for General Motors that took me around the world and culminated in three years training in the Middle East whilst being resident in Dubai till 2000.

I returned to the UK, as I missed dear old England, and invested in a TV production company in Soho. I stayed till 2008 when I returned to freelance work although I had done many gigs while a director of The Facility such as ‘The Magic of Television’, a huge roadshow event for the BBC. During this time I started working with a friend from the GM programme who was an Olympic coach. Together we took sports coaching into business when it was a new thing. That relationship continues to this day. I have also spent time as an actor and pop up on TV occasionally. I have a studio at home and still do voice work and video production.

As a result of having presented training videos for the electrical industry all my freelance life, currently I spend a lot of my time presenting on electrical regulations. My colleague and I tour the country doing Tech Talks and producing video content for the industry.

I joined the Parish Council around 2012 and enjoy the community involvement and working in the areas we can affect. The Council has struggled for willing volunteers for a few years but, happily, we have some fresh and enthusiastic new Councillors and I feel we are moving to a new level.

I currently hold the following Portfolios on behalf of the Parish Council:

Emergency Plan
Defibrillator Maintenance
Website Content and Creation