AS WE MOVE into the last week of canvassing for the local council elections former Labour councillor Sean Morton continues to seek new ways of reaching out to voters.
Mr Morton, who is contesting the Fochabers/Lhanbryde ward as an independent, has already laid out a 50-point personal manifesto calling on all new councillors to lay aside their party differences.
Yesterday he took things a step further by launching a consultation which he insists demonstrates his commitment to working with local people “to get the best for Moray”.
Mr Morton said: “I meant it when I said I Moray needs all hands on deck – think of this like a suggestion box for the digital age. Running Moray together starts with hearing different ideas and testing them out.”
Adding that the best ideas are the ones that local people really care about, the candidate has invited everyone – including his seven opponents for the Fochabers/Lhanbryde ward – to add their ideas to an online consultation tool he is using that was developed by Princeton University.
He added: “This will be the kind of non-partisan team approach I want to see after the election and this is just the start when it comes to giving local people more power. I want them to be in the driving seat after the election – not people they’ve never heard of.”
There is no limit to the number of times a person can vote using the tool that measures strength of feeling for a particular policy and can be found at http://www.allourideas.org/seanmortonuk.
Contesting the Fochabers/Lhanbryde ward are: David Bremner (SNP), Donald Cameron (Scottish Lib Dem), Kenneth Gillespie (Independent), Peter Horton (Scottish Lib Dem), Marc Macrae (Scottish Conservative and Unionist), Shona Morrison (SNP), Sean Morton, Ian Taylor (Independent).