What it means to me is being someone who is constantly there, a listening ear for the people of Hawcoat and Newbarns, with a voice who can then transform those concerns and those worries and those voices into something tangible at council level, holding, whether it’s Labour at Barrow Town Council or the Liberal Democrats at Westmorland and Furness Council, to account.

Full statement

With our four years of Conservative representation of Hawcoat and Newbarns, we’ve done wonderful things, but yet still we find ourselves completely neglected by the Liberal Democrat majority on Westmorland and Furness Council.

I think the problems facing Hawcoat and Newbarns are ubiquitous, they are facing everyone in Westmorland and Furness, whether it’s poor road networks, lack of communication with businesses, we have recently seen the forced purchase of businesses at Lakes Parade.

We have seen public facilities such as Hawcoat Community Centre being left to the winds of time, with Westmorland and Furness Council focusing all of its might and power on Kendal and neglecting our small patch down here.

Really, my roots to the area couldn’t grow any deeper, my family has been here in Cumbria and in Lancashire for hundreds and hundreds of years. I feel intrinsically linked to the area.

I imagine that the criticism that comes from my candidacy will be synonymous with inexperience, but I would like to take issue with that contention.

As it was reinforced to me by residents on the doorstep, it is a refreshing opportunity for local politics, in a sense that you’re bringing in, not an external voice, but a refreshing voice with new perspectives and new abilities to speak to people in a way that perhaps they haven’t experienced before.