A councillor from Peasedown St John has announced his intention this week to stand for parliament at the next General Election.

Gavin Heathcote, an Independent member of Bath & North East Somerset Council, has been behind some of his community's biggest projects over the last couple of years.

As well as being a B&NES councillor, he runs a local charity, organises one of the district's biggest community festivals and has been instrumental in the campaign to plant over 500 trees in public and open spaces.

Gavin will stand as an Independent Candidate in the brand-new Frome and East Somerset Parliamentary Constituency. He said: "Party politics has let us down for far too long! Whilst politicians in the major parties squabble over the next newspaper headline, it's the hardworking people in towns and villages up and down the country that lose out.

Whilst those of us who work hard and pay our taxes struggle to make ends meet, we have a political establishment that has no idea how those of us in the 'real world' struggle to put food on the table and ensure the household bills are paid."

Gavin wants to do more to support the middle earners, those that are 'just about managing'. He wants to see reforms to the tax system that support those 'in the middle' and much more help for small businesses who are being priced out by large companies.

"I'll be announcing my five key policy areas later in the spring, all of which will focus on the common every-day issues that we all face."

With the date of the next UK General Election unknown, what is certain is that it will be fought under radically new parliamentary boundaries across the country. Locally, the towns and villages of Midsomer Norton, Radstock, Westfield and Peasedown St John will join with Frome, Coleford and Holcombe to form the new 'Frome and East Somerset' Constituency.

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Running Gavin's election campaign for parliament will be B&NES council's former Deputy Leader Nathan Hartley, who has a track record of winning elections. He has run every local election campaign for the winning candidates in Peasedown St John since 2003.

Nathan said: "We've developed a winning formula for winning elections in Peasedown that's worked everytime for the last 20 years. The challenge though is to see if we can replicate the success of Peasedown's Independent movement across a much wider geographical area.

We certainly have a mountain to climb! My job will be to ensure that every single one of the 70,000 voters in this brand-new constituency have heard of Gavin, know what he stands for and are motivated to vote for him.

As an Independent, he'll be competing with the larger parties who have major financial backing. We'll be relying on the support of ordinary, everyday people who feel persuaded to vote for something different."

To keep up-to-date with Gavin Heathcote's run for parliament, follow him on Facebook at www.facebook.com/GavinForFES as he travels around the constituency.

Readers can also get in touch with Gavin by emailing [email protected]