WE'RE giving you the chance to look at the candidates in the General Election in Taunton Deane on Thursday, May 7.

Here's what LibDem candidate Rachel Gilmour has to say.

 

MY brothers and I all have fond memories of walking through fields (now Hoyles Road) in the 1970s to go to school at St John’s in High Street.

My parents had moved to Taunton Deane so we could benefit from the quality of life here, and I know how much that matters to people who live locally.

My father believed in giving something back to the community; he was chairman of Wellington Town Council and a councillor on Taunton Deane Council, but unlike me he was a Conservative.

Last week we had some great news that the Liberal Democrats in Government had helped to allocate over £65million to this region so the Local Enterprise Partnership is able do things like improving junction 25 of the M5, ensuring quicker broadband connection, and providing more funding for Science, Technology, English and Maths (STEM) at Somerset College (where I used to teach).

This will be a vital part of helping to provide the jobs and services needed here.

We need to create the right environment for national and international business to invest in providing more well paid and secure local jobs.

As a member of the Musgrove Park Trust I want to see the continued development of facilities at the hospital.

The new surgical building and upgrades across the hospital have seen drastic improvement in the treatments available at Musgrove Park and led to a much-improved patient experience.

The hospital is world class, and like all our NHS services we need to ensure that we can rely on them in future.

Jeremy Browne has been an excellent local MP and is strongly supporting my campaign to succeed him.

I have campaigned with him, I have worked locally and I have also achieved a great deal working for national organisations.

With your support I will be a hard-working and effective local champion for Taunton Deane in Parliament.

Everyone here knows only the Liberal Democrats or the Conservatives can win in this constituency.

It is clear that votes for anyone else just help the Conservatives.

You may remember that it has often been a very close contest between the local Liberal Democrats and Conservatives.

So, you really can make a difference here – just as I will seek to do for the benefit of everyone