Our Candidates – Chris, Elena and Trevor

April

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The first aim for the Liberal Democrats in this year’s elections was to hold on to the two seats we are defending. And we’ve done this already ! Ron Oatham and Bruce Smart have already been elected unopposed to Rayleigh Town Council.

And our next aim? Well, there aren’t any really ultra-marginal seats to fight for, but we are pleased to have selected three experienced candidates who would all be good councillors if elected.

Chris Stanley is standing for us in Trinity Ward. Chris came second last time, pushing the English Democrats into third place. He’s a real eager beaver for the day-to-day issues like potholes and grafitti.It’s a particularly interesting election this time round as the outgoing Tory councillor , Keith Gibbs, has not been selected by the Conservatives. In fact, he is standing for UKIP. How this will split the Tory vote is hard to predict.

There are five candidates standing here – Conservatives, English Democrats, Labour , Liberal Democrats and UKIP. It’s worth mentioning that the Labour candidate lives in Hawkwell.

There’s also one point worth mentioning here about the Development Committee. All 39 members of the District Council are automatically offered a place on the Development Committee – the committee that deals with planning applications. However, only 38 members were shown on the agenda of the last meeting – Cllr Gibbs was not listed! This is odd, and we’d like to hear an explanation.

Elena Black is standing for us in Rayleigh Central ward, where she stood in the by-election last December. It was a cold, dark and wet day – very unusual election conditions – and Lena came third. Lena is determined enough to have another crack at this and Central ward residents are starting to receive her leaflets. Lena is passionate about wanting more leisure and medical facilities for Rayleigh.

There are five candidates standing here – Conservatives, English Democrats, Labour , Liberal Democrats and UKIP. The UKIP candidate is also standing for the Town Council in Grange Ward and we’d love to know how he plans to look after two wards at the same time if he wins both seats!

Trevor Parrett is standing for us in Sweyne Park ward, where he came second last time. Trevor has been one of the mainstays of our local party in recent years, particularly with producing our leaflets. He’s the director of a local business, knows what it’s like to bring up a family in Rayleigh, and would make an excellent councillor.

Sweyne Park has at least two big planning issues – long-term extra development along London Road, and the new Tescos. It will be interesting to see how much impact this has on the Tory vote. And finally, Trevor’s surname is pronounced “Parrot” but spelt PARRETT. (Labour please note!) 🙂

And our next aim after that? To find some more helpers and future candidates, and prepare a good base to fight and win seats in years to come…. And see if we can get reforms to the unbalanced and unrepresentative cabinet system we have in our district.