At next year’s county council elections, I will be standing in the Brentwood Rural division but, don’t worry, councillors can serve at county and borough level simultaneously so, if elected, there’s no chance of me leaving Brentwood West!  I don’t intend to leave Brentwood West for a very, very long time!

The rural divison, curiously, includes South Weald, neighbouring ward to West.  In fact, it starts at Spital Lane where one half of the road falls into West and the other half into South Weald!  It also includes Tipps Cross, Brizes & Doddinghurst and Ingatestone, Fryerning and Mountnessing.  As a former resident of Clapgate, Stondon Massey (in Tipps Cross ward) and a fierce protector of Brentwood’s Green Belt it seemed sensible to stand in this division.  I’ve had exposure to rural politics before as my mother, Linda Price, was a Parish Councillor for Stondon Massey (an integral part of getting funding to refurbish the village hall) and our planning representative (you could never believe what some people wanted to build on the green belt!) as was her late partner, Terry Murray.  Terry was a key player in the “Stop the M12″ campaign and extremely well known and highly regarded throughout Brentwood.  I moved there just after he died in 1999 to a house in Clapgate, just off the coincidentally named “Chivers Road” and was a familiar site to many…walking the dogs through the country lanes!

For more details, click here: http://www.essex09.mycouncillor.org.uk/

The other prospective candidates for county council are: Cllr Barry Aspinell (Brentwood North division), Cllr Ross Carter (Brentwood Hutton division) and Cllr David Kendall (Brentwood South division).  Brentwood South is West’s county division - more on this soon!