FIONA Hanlon has announced she her intentions to run as an independent candidate for the Grange and Cartmel area.

The councillor and musician, who previously won a landslide victory in the Grange by-election back on August 12, 2021, will be returning as an independent for the upcoming vote which will take place on May 5.

During her previous vote she achieved 1336 votes for the Liberal Democrats and was praised for outperforming every other candidate at the ballot box.

The well-known musician wishes to continue her work for the local area despite not being selected by the panel for the party, meaning she is no longer a Lib Dem councillor.

Fiona is excited about her upcoming campaign and plans to give local residents the opportunity to back a local candidate.

She said: “I worked very closely with the residents and a lot of them were upset that I couldn’t carry on, and some of them said, ‘well why not stand as an independent?’

“I thought well why not?

“It was a tough call as it won’t be easy but I’m very excited for it.

“Fighting as an independent will be difficult as the other parties have so much funding but I want to do this.

“But as an independent you can appeal to all the parties. It was great to have the Lid Dems vote last time, but I even got a lot from the Greens and the Conservatives.”

The issues Fiona plans to run on include:

  • Affordable housing for locals
  • Improving safety on the A590 & other local roads
  • Protecting and increasing green spaces and gaps between villages
  • Improving local transport & parking issues

She added: “Everyone will have three votes in Grange and Cartmel this year and it will have more candidates standing for the area.

“I’ve got some people locally who are putting leaflets through the doors.

“Some people have already said they will be keeping a vote for me.

“I will be focusing on local issues, particularly housing and making efforts to help Ukrainian refugees.

“I have a proven track record over the seven months after I was elected.

“My favourite comment is ‘we have someone who is actually getting things done’.

“I can make things happen and I want to carry that on.”