John Powley
John Albert Powley is a British Conservative Party politician.
In the mid-1970s, he was instrumental in the construction of the Grafton Centre in Cambridge, a shopping centre; though there was controversy at the time over the demolition of a number of nineteenth century terraces as a result.
At the 1979 general election, he contested Harlow, securing a 13% swing from Labour to Conservative, which just failed to oust Labour MP Stan Newens.
He was elected as the Member of Parliament for Norwich South in the Conservative landslide at the 1983 general election, defeating Labour incumbent John Garrett, with a majority of 1,712 votes. However, at the 1987 election Garrett regained the seat with a narrow majority of 336 votes.
Powley returned to local government in Cambridgeshire following his defeat. He served as one of the county councillors for Soham and was prominent as a spokesman for the local community following the Soham murders of 2003. He was Chairman of Cambridgeshire County Council for two years from 2011–13, when he decided not to stand for re-election to the County Council.
