Green Party announce election candidate for new Alnwick Hotspur ward

Northumberland Green Party has confirmed that Martin Swinbank will stand in the Hotspur ward in May’s elections.

The existing Alnwick ward, which Cllr Swinbank has represented for the last four years, is being split and its boundaries adjusted so that the two revised wards – Alnwick Hotspur and Alnwick Castle – will have a single councillor each.

Northumberland Conservatives have already announced Mayor Geoff Watson will also contest the Hotspur ward seat.

Cllr Swinbank said: I'm delighted to have been chosen once again by the Green Party as a candidate for Alnwick, this time in the new Hotspur ward, but I’m aware that the recent ward boundary changes – with Edlingham Parish now included in Alnwick Hotspur – will mean the ward includes residents that may not yet be familiar with me.

“In my time as a county councillor, I've seen just how important it is to work collaboratively with councillor colleagues and council officers to support the ward and I will continue to work across both physical and political boundaries to achieve the best outcomes for Alnwick and Edlingham.

"Good decisions are made and outcomes achieved when councillors are free to challenge existing norms, power structures and political control. As a Green Party councillor, I'm free to do just that.

“Alnwick and Edlingham are blessed with natural beauty, historic architecture, world leading cultural attractions plus wonderful residents and a real sense of community. We also have pockets of deep inequality and social injustice including inadequate affordable housing.”