STOPPING the Ipsley Meadow cemetery proposal from going ahead is a top priority for Juliet Brunner if she retains her seat in the forthcoming county council elections on May 6.
The Redditch councillor, who resigned from the Conservatives to fight for her Arrow Valley East seat as an Independent, plans to come out all guns blazing.
She believes that standing as an Independent will mean she is answerable only to Redditch residents and their needs.
“As an Independent, I am free from political party pressure or whip,” she said.
“I believe the ability to give public service is a privilege. I follow in my father’s footsteps, whose greatest lesson was: ‘you can be part of the problem or part of the solution – always choose to be the solution’.”
Brunner, vice chairman of Worcestershire County Council, said she decided to resign after her Redditch Conservative colleagues rejected her application to defend the district.
Since then, she has been noted as one of the leading voices in the campaign to stop a cemetery being built on land off Ipsley Church Lane.
If elected, she also plans to fight against the housing proposal in Mappleborough Green Woods, and says she will argue to ensure all green space in Redditch remains untouched.
The mum-of-three worked as a nurse for 30 years and says that gives her a ‘good understanding’ of the importance of the NHS.
“I will hold Worcestershire Acute Hospitals NHS Trust to account because, like you, I want to see services returned to the Alexandra Hospital,” she added.
“Community is at the heart of everything I do and I have a reputation for openness, transparency and getting things done.
“I am not going to make promises I cannot keep.”
Also standing in Arrow Valley East are: Isabel Armstrong (Independent), Joe Baker (Labour), Matt Dormer (Conservative), Wanda King (Labour), Vicki Lees (Greens), Jo Monk (Conservative), Andy Thompson (Liberal Democrat), Mark Tomes (Liberal Democrat), Simon Venables (Greens).
