Cranbrook & Ottery St Mary Labour Party Candidates for the 2^nd May 2019 Town and District Council elections were

Sue Mills – Sue Mills has been an active member of the Labour Party since 1976 and a Unison member for some twenty years. She has been Branch and Constituency Secretary in the past and is currently secretary of Sidmouth and Ottery branch and the Constituency Chair. In her professional life working for the Citizens Advice Bureau and Sue has acquired extensive advisory and social policy knowledge on welfare and employment rights. She possesses powerful research and analytical skills combined with advocacy authority very much in evidence in her Party work. She is passionately committed to Labour’s core values. Sue has stood as a candidate in Town, District and County elections, worked in a voluntary capacity for Age Concern and served as a parent governor in Sidmouth School. Sue says: It’s time for the Councils to get labour representation to defend our public services and put an end to their decimation by Tory austerity cuts.

Luke Gray – I feel very privileged to be your Labour candidate to represent Ottery St Mary on the East Devon District Council. I came down to Devon 27 years ago to teach at King’s School and have been very fortunate to have built my life in this wonderful part of the world. The main reason I would like to serve on the Council is because we need to offer that same opportunity to our people. In particular our young people. Far too many of the talented young people I taught simply do not see any future for them in this area.

It seems to me that the main priority for the council should be the provision of good quality, affordable social housing. This would give our young people the chance to start to build their lives here. This is the vital task we must undertake and we must succeed as without them we quite literally don’t have a future. So please give me your vote so that we can work to make Ottery St Mary a great place that offers a good life and bright future for all its people.

Sidmouth Labour Party Candidates for the 2^nd May 2019 Town and District Council elections were

Ray Davison – has been a leading advocate of the Labour Party in Devon for over four decades. He has stood as Labour’s Parliamentary candidate for the former Honiton Constrituency and doubled Labour’s vote, locating his campaign HQ in Sidmouth. He has been a member of East Devon District Council Standard’s Committee and an active and prominent School governor at Exmouth Community College for over thirty years. Ray has served on Labour’s National Policy Forum where he successfully moved the amendment, which secured the abolition of National Museum and gallery charges. He has been a candidate in many local authority Town, District and County elections including in Sidmouth and shows no sign of quitting for a less engaged life. Ray says: ‘in these days of masterplans, outsourcing and so-called regeneration projects with their commercially protected internal debates and Chinese whispers, the key issues of public transparency and accountability to voters need addressing to ensure that public assets are protected and retained.’

Colin Mills (Labour and the Co-operative Party candidate) – I was born and brought up in Sidmouth and after a number of years away from the area I returned to my roots. I served two terms as a parish councillor in the Chilterns, and worked as a volunteer for the local Oxfam, Chiltern Open Air Museum as well as having worked in the civil service and graduated from the Open University.

I have concerns about the decline in adult education, which is of course important to everyone and especially how it impacts upon our local economies. Combatting isolation and loneliness in the elderly and retired is another concern of mine. I supported the opposition to the Sidford Business Park and remain opposed even though it is going to appeal.

Planning, education and libraries are areas in which I intend to keep my finger firmly on the pulse. Local government must also do more to tackle the pressing issue of climate change.

Nick Diprose – Having been a resident of Sidmouth for almost three decades, I feel that I am suitably qualified to be able to represent my fellow citizens at both Town and District level. Over that time, I have seen many councillors’ come and go, I have also witnessed numerous topics of local concern grow in importance, whilst others seem to have been ‘dropped by the wayside’ as it were. I will do my very best to listen to all representations without favour, and to respond with the necessary vigour, whilst acting accordingly with dignity and empathy. I come from a strong trade union background, specialising in Occupational Safety and Health, having served on the Executive, representing my own trade union at national level for more than twenty-two years. I have taught Health & Safety at Work at level 3 to Safety reps all over the South West and at City College Plymouth. Together with undertaking a degree level course in International Labour and Trade Union Studies at Ruskin College, Oxford. I am also the President of Exeter & District Trades Union Council.

Exmouth Labour Party Candidates for the 2^nd May 2019 Town and District Council elections were

Dilys Hadley – I have lived in Exmouth for 22 years and I have been an active member of the local community. I’ve got to know many people, who would probably recognise me as a person with a passionate concern for justice, the local environment, provisions for children and young people, the welfare of the disabled, elderly and vulnerable. I have battled with a disability, problems with housing and worked hard to make ends meet. I brought up a daughter in Devon as a lone parent and she went on to gain a degree from Cambridge University despite our social and economic circumstances. Many youngsters have to move away from Exmouth to find work and we need to promote and help to develop Devon for our future generations.

I will challenge the continuing cuts to our public services resulting from the unnecessary austerity programme of the current government that impacts negatively upon us within the county of Devon. If elected I would promote equality, stand up for our human rights, employment and women’s rights, support those who need help, and promote and cherish the beautiful place I live in.

Keith Edwards – I feel privileged to be standing as a candidate in the Town and District Councils elections and if elected I would listen very carefully to the suggestions, queries and concerns of people and to promote their interests at both Town and District Council level. I will do all that I can to promote genuinely fair, open and democratic decision making. As a councillor, I would challenge budget cuts to libraries, schools, health and social care services that have been endorsed by the present Conservative government.

I come from a healthcare and educational background with a specific interest in mental health and have been involved in the successful campaign to save St John’s Court mental health unit in Exmouth. I have worked and researched in the NHS as well as within universities, I have taught nurses, social workers and other health care professionals and currently work part time with the Open University.