THE CANDIDATES who will be standing in this year’s Bromsgrove District Council elections have been officially announced.
Boundary changes have meant that the layout in 2011 – 39 councillors contesting 23 wards – has now become 30 wards.
In 29 of them, there is one seat and one ward – Belbroughton and Romsley – has two places.
Alvechurch which used to have three seats has now been split into two wards with Conservative June Griffiths moving to contest Alvechurch South against UKIP’s Liz Irving.
The second Alvechurch Ward – Alvechurch Village – will be a three-way fight between Fenella Anne Brown from the Greens, John Palethorpe from UKIP and Roger Smith from the Conservatives.
Aston Fields will see Labour’s Rory Shannon – who has just served a term on St John’s – battle it out with Conservative Philip Thomas and Green Marcus Draper.
Conservative Mike Webb, who represented Norton, will now contest the new Barnt Green and Hopwood ward against independent Charles Hotham.
In the Avoncroft ward, Independent John Ellis will be up against Labour’s Mariam Garibyan and Conservative Malcolm Glass.
The two-seat ward of Belbroughton and Romsley will see Conservatives Margaret Sherrey and Christopher Allen-Jones go up against Labour’s Jacky Smith and independents Stan Francis and Alec Syrotiuk.
The town centre – formerly included in St John’s – will now be covered by the new Bromsgrove Central ward. That will see Conservative Rita Dent and Labour’s Tom Stanley go head-to-head.
Catshill has now been split into two separate wards. Conservative Helen Jones, Labour’s Glenys Blackmoor and Green Party candidate Julian Gray are in the running for Catshill North. And Labour’s Bernard McEldowney and Conservative Shirley Webb will contest Cathsill South.
Conservative Richard Deeming, Labour’s Alan Cooper and Green Jill Harvey will fight for the Cofton seat and the Hill Top ward will see Labour’s Luke Mallett and Conservative Mark Hodder do battle.
The Lickey Hills seat will see Liberal Democrat Janet King face Conservative Kit Taylor and Lowes Hill will see Conservative Rod Laight take on Labour’s Jeremy Bryan.
The three-way battle of Marlbrook will see Conservative Brian Cooper, Labour’s Martin Knight and Green Peter Harvey go up against each other.
And in Norton, Conservative Peter Lammas, Labour’s Ed Murray and Green Michelle Baker will be vying for votes.
In the Perryfields ward, Mick Ball, of Labour, will stand against independent Brian Lewis and Conservative Karen May.
The Rock Hill seat will be contested by Conservative Del Booth, Lib Dem Michael Mihailovic and Labour’s Michael Thompson.
In the Sanders Park ward, Tory Ted Tibby will face Labour’s Margaret Buxton and in Sidemoor Labour’s Chris Bloore will go up against Conservative Penny Power and UKIP’s Adrian Smart.
Slideslow will be a four-way fight between Conservative Caroline Spencer, Labour’s Philip Baker, Lib Dem Joseph Hearn and Green Mark Smith.
And in Tardebigge, Stan Baker from the Greens, Labour’s Ros Cooke, UKIP’s George Flynn and Conservative Peter Whittaker will be hoping to finish first.
Rubery has now been split into two wards – with Labour’s Peter McDonald and Conservative Claire Jones contesting Rubery North and Labour’s Christine McDonald facing Conservative Allan Venables for the Rubery South seat.
Hagley is now also divided into two wards – in the East, independent Rachel Jenkins and Conservative Keith Grant-Pearce will fight it out and in Hagley West independent Steven Colella will Conservative Ed Moore will be vying for votes.
The Drakes Cross ward will see a straight fight between Wythall Residents Association (WRA) candidate Sue Baxter and Conservative Roy Clarke and the Hollywood seat will see Stephen Peters, from the WRA, go up against Conservative Mark Bullivant.
Wythall East will see the WRA’s Leslie Turner battle Conservative Patricia Harrison and in Wythall West there will be four people up for the seat. Conservative Geoff Denaro, WRA Helen Cleaver, Lib Dem Sandra Docker and UKIP’s Barry Thornton.
Brian Lewis and Steve Colella who quit the Conservative group to become independents are standing again – in Perryfields and Hagley West respectively. s
Conservative leader Margaret Sherrey is standing in the Belbroughton and Romsley ward. s
