David Cartwright is a "local boy" who first moved to Mottingham in 1971. He served as a Fire Officer in the London Fire Brigade for some 31 years, receiving the Queen's Fire Service Medal for Distinguished Service in 1992. Following his retirement in 2000, with his brother, he set up a small family wine business operating from the Borough Market.
In 2008, David was appointed as the Mayor of London's (Boris Johnson) representative on the London Fire and Emergency Planning Authority, on which he served until 2016, overseeing the effective running of London's Fire Brigade.
In 2014 he was successfully elected as local Councillor for the Mottingham & Chislehurst North Ward.
David has serves both on Bromley Council’s Public Protection Committee and its Environment Committee.
With his colleague Councillor Charles Rideout he runs regular surgeries both on the Mottingham estate and at Mottingham library, dealing with a wide variety of local issues and problems.
David has worked closely with the Mottingham Residents' Association over his tenure of office, protecting local green-belt and Metropolitan Open Land from unwanted development and closely monitoring local planning applications. He has represented the local community's interests at a number of planning enquiries and he has been spearheading local environment and road safety initiatives.
David is a school governor at Dorset Road Infant School, which has gained a "good" rating in its last Ofsted inspection and was Deputy Mayor of The London Borough of Bromley 2018/2019.
He is married with three grown up children and eight grandchildren all currently living in Mottingham.