A TORY CANDIDATE seeking election to Moray Council from the Forres ward has said that she has already revealed local issues that would demand attention.
Claire Feaver is the Conservative candidate for the ward which hosts the constituency office for her party colleague at Holyrood, Douglas Ross MSP.
Ms Feaver said that she decided to start her campaign early “to give me a chance to gain feedback from as many people as possible”.
She said: “The biggest single issue seems to be health and particularly the provision of respite care. I am very concerned about that, having had personal experience of caring after an elderly relative myself.
“I really hope that I can help to find some solutions though I recognise that it may be very difficult given the state of the Council’s finances. There is also a great deal of concern about people being expected to travel to Aberdeen for hospital appointments. It can be a very taxing journey especially for elderly people or for parents with young children.
“A lot of people are concerned about the state of the pavements and cycling. And there has been a very strong reaction to the huge rise in business rates being implemented by the Scottish Government and the future of our local shops in Forres.
“I have also spoken to people in Findhorn about wildfowling. These are all issues that I will take up if elected.”
At the moment she said that she was concentrating on the rural areas of the ward and had recently spent some time door-knocking in the Kintessack and Broom of Moy areas.
She added: “All parts of the ward deserve to be represented and I am covering as much as I can. I have been really pleased at how welcoming people have been whatever their voting intention. They really seem to appreciate someone coming to see them. Many have said that I was the first candidate they had ever met on the doorstep.
“I should say that delivering the leaflets would have been impossible without the help of my husband and some very loyal friends and supporters. We are all getting quite a lot fitter as a result!”
Claire can be contacted by Email to claire4forres@gmail.com or on 07716 503294.
All council candidates are free to contact insideMoray with updates – space will be found to inform local voters ahead of the May local council elections.