NEALE-Wade Community College teacher Martin Field has been selected as the local Labour Party candidate to stand in the upcoming March West by-election, caused by the passing of Cllr Peter Skoulding. Martin, 44, has lived and worked in the Fens for 16 yea

NEALE-Wade Community College teacher Martin Field has been selected as the local Labour Party candidate to stand in the upcoming March West by-election, caused by the passing of Cllr Peter Skoulding.

Martin, 44, has lived and worked in the Fens for 16 years, is married to a local primary school teacher and has two sons also at Neale-Wade. He has previously served on Fenland District Council, rising to Vice Chair of the Council and Chair of the Leisure Services Board.

While a serving councillor Martin worked closely with the Ivy Leaf Housing Association, assisting those in council houses and sheltered accommodation. He is a former Chair of Fenland Victim Support and helped to get Young People March up and running.

As an active member of the community Martin is also a governor at a March primary school, and has recently been working on secondment for the Cambridgeshire Environmental Education Service teaching children about the regeneration project in Wisbech and wind turbines at Coldham.

After being selected Martin said: "For democracy to work there must be a genuine and active opposition. Fenland District Council needs councillors who can challenge those in power and hold them to account. This cannot be done by someone who is part of the ruling party.

"Unfortunately, councillors often do not listen to local people until they fear the electorate will choose someone else. Fenland, with no formal opposition, is a council which thinks it can do what ever it likes because it is closed to proper scrutiny and criticism at the decision making stage"

"Local people deserve to have their voices heard. They do not deserve to be represented by a Tory clique who dominate the town, district and county council. Can it make sense that issues such as planning should be looked at three times by the same group of people?"

After the selection Labour's Parliamentary spokesperson Peter Roberts added: "Martin is a superb candidate. He has real experience of local community activism and a respected record of helping people. I hope local people will listen to his views and ideas about how to improve March West before making their final decision on polling day. Martin has already agreed to take part in any potential husting meetings during the campaign, which I'm sure both local residents and the other candidates would welcome the chance to participate in".