General Election fever begins to mount in Kingswood

With the General Election just a few weeks away, candidates vying for the Kingswood seat are busy on the campaign trail - and we'll be keeping you up to date here at Kingswood People.

With five years the maximum period for a Parliament, the election must be held by no later than Thursday, June 3.

The boundaries of the Kingswood Parliamentary constituency will change at the next General Election. Frome Vale, Hillfields, Staple Hill and Downend will no longer be part of Kingswood but parts of Hanham, Bitton and Oldland Common currently in the Wansdyke constituency will come into Kingswood.

The sitting MP for Kingswood is Roger Berry who took 26,491 votes at the last election.

The Conservatives came second with 18,618 and the Lib Dems third, polling 9,089 votes.

Two of the candidates - the Conservatives' Chris Skidmore and the Lib Dems' Sally FitzHarris - have already become members of Kingswood People. Sally writes regular blogs and Chris has also started writing on the website - so if you have any questions for them, post them here and they'll reply.

Roger has been Kingswood's MP for 18 years. Before that he was an economics lecturer. After the MPs' expenses row last year, he published his receipts on his website ahead of their official release by the House of Commons. It was revealed he spent £15,000 kitting out his two-bed second home in London but at the time he defended the claim as not excessive. Find out more about him at www.rogerberrymp.co.uk

Chris, an author and part-time lecturer at Bristol University, has said that if he is elected, he will not claim for a mortgage, food or household goods.

He lives in Bitton and grew up in Longwell Green and says he "can't wait" for the General Election. "Local people keep telling me that they want change," he said.

He feels the biggest issue locally is the downgrading of Frenchay Hospital. "We have just learnt that Labour now plan to scrap the Minor Injuries Unit, breaking a promise to local people," he said.

The Green Belt is another big issue. "We are carrying out our campaign to stop thousands of houses from being built on local Green Belt, thanks to the Labour Government.

"The local infrastructure just won't cope and we need to preserve our green spaces for future generations," he said.

Find out more about Chris at www.chrisskidmore.com

Sally FitzHarris, a journalist and teacher, is fighting her first seat for the Liberal Democrats.

Currently living in North Common, she cites the safeguarding of Green Belt land as one of her key concerns.

She is worried that the nearest acute care hospital serving the Kingswood constituency  when Frenchay closes will be Southmead and wants to see a cheap, if not free bus service, and for hospital parking charges to be scrapped.

You can find out more about Sally at http://tinyurl.com/ya79ymh

Standing for UKIP in Kingswood is John Knight and the English Democrats party candidate is Michael Blundell.

Meanwhile the Green Party is hoping to field a candidate in Kingswood for the first time this year and is appealing to supporters to donate money to pay for the deposit.

A spokesman said: "If just 50 people give £10 then we can pay our £500 election deposit to stand a candidate in Kingswood. This will be a tremendous achievement for Bristol Green Party, and if we get five per cent of the Kingswood vote then the deposit will be returned to us."

The total raised currently stands at £360. See http://tinyurl.com/y9y4x5f for more information about the Green Party in Kingswood.

Have you lost confidence in MPs after the expenses scandal? If you were the MP for Kingswood, what would be the top five things you would fix first?

Let us know!