Paul Hopfensperger

Paul Hopfensperger (born 1963) is a former British politician and open water swimmer. He is also an international best-selling author and musician, and singer/songwriter/guitarist with the British mod revival band The Teazers.

He served as the first Bury St. Edmunds Town Councillor for Eastgate Ward from 2003 to 2006, the first Suffolk County Councillor for Tower Division from 2005 to 2009, and as the first West Suffolk District Councillor for St Olaves Ward from 2019 to 2023. He was the deputy mayor of Bury St Edmunds from 2005 to 2006 and from 2019 to 2020.

Hopfensperger was a member of the Conservative Party until 2008, when he became an independent.^[1]

Hopfensperger attended The Convent of St Louis, Moreton Hall Preparatory School and Culford School, all in Bury St Edmunds, Suffolk. He graduated from the Cambridge College of Arts and Technology (now Anglia Ruskin University) with a Higher National Diploma (HND) in Mechanical/Computer Aided Engineering. Since 2008, having retrained, he is now a Health Coach, Speaker and best-selling Author.^[2]

Hopfensperger is married to Rebecca (Beccy) who is currently a West Suffolk District and Suffolk County Council councillor and the former Mayor of Bury St Edmunds (2005–2006).^[3]

Hopfensperger unsuccessfully stood for election to St Edmundsbury Borough Council in 1999 and 2003 (losing by just 5 votes) before being co-opted into the newly formed Bury St Edmunds Town Council at its second ever meeting in June 2003, and serving as deputy mayor from 2005 until his resignation in April 2006.^[4]

Hopfensperger was elected to the newly created Tower Division on Suffolk County Council in 2005 as a Conservative, serving as the Vice Chairman of the Roads and Transport Scrutiny Committee and Assistant to the Portfolio Holder for the London 2012 Olympic Games. However, in February 2008 he left the party over its policy to abolish the county's middle schools becoming an Independent Suffolk County councillor.^[5]

A month later he stood as an Independent candidate for a Bury St Edmunds Town Council by-election. During the election, an opposition candidate reported him to the police for posting "It looks like Paul Farmer has done well" on his blog after returning from the opening of the postal votes. For this he received a police caution under the Representation of the People Act due to a minor breach of the act relating to maintaining secrecy as ballot papers are counted.^[6][7]

Hopfensperger unsuccessfully ran as an Independent for re-election to Suffolk County Council in 2009 in Hardwick Division, a campaign smeared by the Lib-Dems who printed incorrect information on him on their election leaflet.^[8] However, he won a seat on St Edmundsbury Borough Council in 2011 which he held until he stood down to concentrate on his business commitments in 2023. By this time St Edmundsbury had merged with Forest Heath to become West Suffolk District Council.^[9]

Hopfensperger served as the St Edmundsbury Borough Council/West Suffolk Council representative on the Suffolk County Council Health Scrutiny Committee, with documented appointments for the 2015-2016, 2017-2018, and 2018-2019 periods^[10]. He was also elected as the substitute member for 2019-2020 and was recognised for his continued role.^[11]

In the 2017 general election he nominated to run for Parliament in the Bury St Edmunds constituency^[12] but he withdrew before the election for personal reasons. He did run in 2019^[13] prioritising local issues,^[14] finishing 4th (of 4 candidates) in an election dominated by Brexit, with 2.7% of the vote.^[15]

Over his twenty year period as a local councillor, Hopfensperger was involved in many improvements in the district wards and county council division he represented.

In 2015 Hopfensperger raised the issue of dog fouling on two local football pitches in Oakes Road and The Tollgate Recreation Ground/Northumberland Avenue Playing Field in Bury St Edmunds. With assistance from the Suffolk FA and fellow councillors, his campaign raised the £20,000 required for the fencing which led to the creation of two fenced in football facilities in these areas.^[16][17][18]

In a letter to the 'Bury Free Press' on September 30, 2016, Hopfensperger wrote in support of the previous week's letter from the Suffolk Police and Crime Commissioner Tim Passmore about Sport being key to fighting crime.^[19]

In the letter Hopfensperger outlines the availability of the two new football facilities in St Olaves Ward and the work being undertaken to setup youth football, the need to tackle obesity which is rife in the UK and the work being undertaken to build a new community centre. He quotes Chinese philosopher Lao Tzu; A journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step, and challenged people to take that first step.

In December 2021, during the height of the COVID pandemic, the keys to a new multi-million pound, state-of-the-art community centre, which had been 10 years in the making were handed over to the new board of trustees. The project was led by the Newbury Community Association (NCA), of which Hopfensperger was a member as part of his role as a local councillor, in partnership with West Suffolk Council and Suffolk County Council.^{[20][21][22][23][24]}

During a 2021 West Suffolk Council debate on exiting the European Union (Brexit), at which Hopfensperger declared a non-pecuniary interest as a small business owner who imports/exports to/from the EU, he explained that the new trading arrangements with the EU had severely hampered trade and placed extra burdens and costs on companies who now had to complete reams of paperwork. The new paperwork requirements to sell products abroad had meant hours of extra work, including for simply sending items to Northern Ireland which is part of the United Kingdom. This was affecting people’s mental health and he questioned what help was available for business people to deal with the increased costs and burdens.^[25][26]

He criticised the post-Brexit trading arrangements as a "complete and utter disaster". He said, "If anyone tells me 'we knew what we were voting for' I say to them you certainly didn't know what you were voting for."^[27]

UK Parliament elections

Suffolk County Council elections

Borough of St Edmundsbury and West Suffolk District Council elections

Bury St Edmunds Town Council elections

During his youth, Hopfensperger was a competitive swimmer representing his home town of Bury St Edmunds and the county of Suffolk, including captaining the Bury St Edmunds Swimming Club ('The Bury Beavers') on three occasions between 1978 and 1981.^[30][31]

Hopfensperger has completed two solo crossings of the English Channel in 2007^[32] and 2008,^[33][34] making him the 84th person in history to swim the channel more than once.^[30] He also participated in one relay in 2010 as part of the six person 'Team Iryna International English Channel Relay Team'.^[35][30]

Hopfensperger's first swim in 2007 was broadcast live from the English Channel by reporter Jon Wright for BBC Radio Suffolk. Updates were broadcast throughout the day for the duration of the 13 hour 52 minute swim.^[36] His swim was also featured in the second episode of the Discovery Channel documentary series Human Body: Pushing the Limits - "Strength".^[37][32][31] This episode was nominated for an Emmy at the 60th annual Academy of Television Arts & Sciences awards in 2008.^[38][39]

In 2008 Hopfensperger competed at two FINA Open Water Grand Prix,^[40] becoming oldest known person to represent Great Britain in the sport of open water swimming.^[41][31]

In 2001, Hopfensperger was elected to be the 51st Chairman of the Bury St Edmunds Round Table,^[42] an organisation specialising in raising funds for local charities.^[43]

On December 19, 2001, in his capacity as Chairman of Round Table, Hopfensperger, along with other members of the Round Table, presented a cheque for £19,690.00 to members of local Bury St. Edmunds based charities. The money had been raised from the organisation of a Hot Air Balloon Festival and the annual town fireworks display.

On June 7, 2002, Hopfensperger and his wife Beccy set off to complete a 5 day trek on the Great Wall of China, raising £3,000.00 for Whizz-Kidz Children's Wheelchair Charity. Despite badly spraining his ankle only a few minutes into the trek, Hopfensperger completed the task with the aid of two walking poles and having his ankle set on fire and massaged by a Chinese Doctor every evening.^[44]

As of January 25, 2009, Hopfensperger's English Channel Swims swims raised a total of £16,156.13 for St Nicholas' Hospice in Bury St. Edmunds and CLIC Sargent Children's Cancer Charity.^[45]

On Sunday February 20, 2011, Hopfensperger achieved one of his long term goals by completeing two firewalks by walking barefoot on 533 degrees Centigrade coals at the Bury St. Edmunds Rugby Club. The event was to raise funds for the UK charity The Stroke Association for which he raised £293 for the charity.^[46]

During the COVID pandemic, Hopfensperger co-authored a book with various internationally renowned speakers including Kyle Wilson, Denis Waitley, Mitzi Perdue and Tom Ziglar titled Bringing Value, Solving Problems and Leaving a Legacy. Hopfensperger's chapter in the book, titled Just Keep Swimming Until You Get to France!™, details the mental attitude and philosophy gained from swimming The English Channel which he suggests can be used in all areas of life to become successful. The book became an International #1 Amazon Bestseller.^[47][48][49]

In 2021, Hopfensperger, who has been in bands since the age of ten and is guitarist and singer/songwriter with the English mod band The Teazers, was part of an international collaboration of success minded individuals who featured on Roy Smoothe's 'smoothe mix' album titled Success Mindset Mix. This album also hit number one in five categories on the Amazon chart. His song titled Just Keep Swimming Until You Get To France!™ was also based on his experience of swimming The English Channel.^[47]

Hopfensperger also has been a guest on a number of radio shows and podcasts discussing politics, swimming the English Channel, music and personalised nutrition/personalized medicine.

• Bringing Value, Solving Problems and Leaving a Legacy (with Kyle Wilson, Denis Waitley, Mitzi Perdue, Bob Burg, Tom Ziglar and others) (2021) Publisher: Kyle Wilson International. ISBN 9798513562870

• (UK) RWSfm 103.3 (5 December 2019). UK Election 2019 - The Interviews. Julie MacLeod interviews Paul Hopfensperger.{{cite AV media}}: CS1 maint: numeric names: authors list (link)

• (USA) Sean G Murphy's Daily Awakening Call (30 July 2020). "Episode 525. 3 x Channel Swimmer - Paul Hopfensperger" (Podcast).
• (USA) Dr. Amy Novotny (5 September 2020). "The Weekend Wellness Hour - Interview with Paul Hopfensperger about Personalised Nutrition and Swimming The English Channel" (Podcast).^[50]
• (USA) Victor Menasce (26 September 2020). "The Real Estate Espresso Podcast - Interview with Paul Hopfensperger about swimming The English Channel" (Podcast).
• (USA) Jo Hausman (22 October 2020). "Go For It! - Just Keep Swimming Until You Get to France!" (Podcast).
• (USA) Pancham Gupta (27 September 2021). "The Gold Collar Investor Podcast - 3x Crossing English Channel! The story of grit and mindset!" (Podcast).

• "(USA) Larry Thompson's 'The Millionaire Training Book Club'. Larry and Taylor Thompson interview Paul Hopfensperger". 22 January 2021.

• (AUS) Kloeden CN, McLean AJ (15 August 1995). "Alcohol, Drugs and Traffice Safety-T'95, volumes 1 and 2 (ICADTS). Vol 1 - Page 475, Paul J Hopfensperger - Automating Drink/Drive Procedures to Reduce Police Time and Eliminate Errors". Adelaide: NHMRC Road Accident Research Unit.
• (UK) Opuko, Benjamin (19 March 2024). "Executive Interview with Paul Hopfensperger, founder of Body and Mind Studio International". XRP Healthcare.^[51]

In 2010 Hopfensperger appeared on the TV quiz show Eggheads where he captained a team of six English Channel swimmers called "Channel Buoys and Gulls". The team included 'King of The English Channel' swimmer Kevin Murphy.^[52]

• Paul Hopfensperger at IMDb
• Paul Hopfensperger at Discogs
• Paul Hopfensperger's English Channel Swims (Dover.UK.com)
• Paul Hopfensperger at World Aquatics Official (worldaquatics.com)