Martin Dimery is a man with a very clear message and an appeal to Frome to live up to its reputation for doing things differently and make a BIG difference in the forthcoming parliamentary by-election.

The sixty six year old former teacher and Cheese & Grain and Frome Festival leader is the locally based candidate keen to stress that he sees the positives and negatives of a place regularly voted the best place to live in the UK.

Nub News went to interview him about this strange political landscape and why he insists he can make a difference.

Calling Frome Funky is a distraction

" I have been here 40 years and the town has been turned around," explained Martin Dimery. " Places like Cheese & Grain have been a part of that in terms of raising the profile of the town and raising the prospects of the town. But while it is very nice to have a fairly affluent bohemian population who get to see great shows and some nice independent shops, we need to see what that also means for the people who grew up here and cant afford houses in Frome.

" We still have a lot of people for whom the swing towards middle class coffee culture doesn't help pay the bills, and they maybe the ones who will not vote at all. So I say to them, get out and vote and vote Green.

"We are so clear - we will raise taxes on those who can afford it to help pay for others. We are not skirting around that issue."

And then who knows, with Frome being the biggest town in the constituency, voters here could change everything?

Tired voters have not even had an MP for the past 14 months, another issue that Martin Dimery is clear should never have happened.

He told Nub News; " There was a time when a politician who was caught or accused of serious impropriety would stand on his doorstep and say I am completely innocent of the charges against me but I feel it is only right to stand down for the constituency. But that is not what happens now, they deny it and carry on. Any semblance of honour has disappeared. David Warburton should have gone 14 months ago to give us a proper MP."

But with heavy Lib Dem presence in the town do they not have the seat already in the bag ?

He told us : "The Lib Dems do NOT have a shoe in here, that is why they are trying to squeeze our vote. They focus more on countering what we say and putting pressure on the Greens because they know we, the Greens, are popular in Frome. if they don't win Frome they may not win the seat at all."

Born in Luton, Martin Dimery was previously Head of Drama at Frome College. He and his wife Anne, have lived in Frome for 39 years and their three children went to Frome schools. If elected he will be the UK's second Green MP.

Why should they vote for you?

" Because I am already working for the constituency as a councillor, Frome is the biggest town in the constituency by a long margin and I won 51 per cent of the vote on here at the council elections. We have enough people in Frome alone to win this by-election and I am already working on social issues at the grass roots level with planning and housing and health funding.

"Greens will help you and your family to survive, it is as basic as that and we are the only party who promise to do that. Key to that is that rents are made cheaper and people have more money to spend. We DO need more housing, it is fact. I am not shying away from saying it. Frome has got land where we can build, it is HOW we develop it that is important.

" People can trust us, the Green Party, to stand up for them on the council and do some really serious work, we are already doing it at a local level, so they can trust me to do that in parliament."

But in a cost of living crisis won't green policies cost more ?

"Investing in sustainable green energy is of course our policy, but it is much cheaper to run energy from the sun and wind than it is to burn coal, once the initial investment is in. Green energy is incredibly cheap - it comes from the elements. We subsidise the energy companies anyway.. we give Shell millions of pounds and then let them make huge huge profits.

" And why are we letting the banks screw us when interest rates are going up ? When we actually bailed them in 2008, now they are turning on us, why have we allowed that to happen? "

He adds: " "People say ah but if you tax the top one per cent of then the very richest will go somewhere else, but they don't pay their taxes anyway, they move off shore, so why are we worried about them leaving ?

"Our principles are broadly left - the gap between the rich and poor has grown exponentially and now the difference between the haves and the have nots is massive, that has to be brought sorted, it is socially irresponsible not to."

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*In 2017, Mr. Dimery and Councillor John Clarke became the first Green Party candidates elected to Somerset County Council. Martin was elected again in 2022 becoming Leader of the expanded Green Group, a group of five Green councillors and is now Chair of the Environment and Climate Change Scrutiny committee

All the candidates for the forthcoming by-election on July 20 are HERE