Simon Bond - Deputy Mayor 2023-2024
David Armitage. Deputy Mayor's Consort
Simon was born and went to school in London, and studied economics at Leicester. In 1979 he started working for a firm in the High Street in Windsor and set up home in Maidenhead, near St Luke’s, later moving to the Castle Hill area of Maidenhead. He also discovered the Quakers. The practice of gathering in stillness met a need in him and being a Quaker has been an important part of his life ever since.
Simon worked for financial services firm Towry from 1979 to 2009. In about the year 2000 it relocated from Windsor to Bracknell. After taking early retirement, he undertook a variety of voluntary roles with charities and community groups. This included being treasurer and a trustee of a not-for-profit care home for elderly residents.
With a background in economics and finance, he takes a particular interest in the contribution we can all make as individuals, together with organisations and the world of finance, to a just transition to net zero and to a more sustainable economy and environment.
He was the first secretary of Wild Maidenhead to help it get on its feet and has also supported local community organisations such as Maidenhead Foodshare, MaidEnergy (the renewable energy cooperative) and the Craufurd Arms.
In 2019 he became a councillor for the Belmont ward in Maidenhead which covers a diverse area from St Mark’s / Courthouse Road to St Luke’s / Cookham Road.
David was born in Yorkshire and brought up near Holmfirth (where the ‘Last of the summer Wine’ series is made). He studied food science in Leeds. Moving south in 1973, he started working as a food technician at the Rank Hovis McDougall Research Centre in High Wycombe, specialising in wheat, flour and bread. He remained with them until taking early retirement due to increasing visual impairment. In retirement, he has campaigned for clearer labelling, particularly on food products. It is important that everyone can read things like cooking instructions and sometimes it is the contrast as much as the size that makes this difficult for visually impaired people.