AFTER fighting to save the Turkish Baths from a period of closure, her next challenge could be an election battle for the Carlisle Parliamentary seat.

Julie Minns, of Collingwood Street, Denton Holme is leading the Friends of Carlisle’s Victorian and Turkish Baths in efforts to secure a positive future for the Grade II Listed facility on James Street.

And now, she has announced her intention to stand for Labour in the next General Election, if she is selected as the party’s candidate in the coming weeks.

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Ms Minns said: “Running the campaign over the last 18 months has inspired me to see the greater potential of the city and I want to play my part in helping us realise that potential. I think I can best do that as the Member of Parliament for Carlisle.”

The city respecting its heritage assets like the Turkish Baths and cathedral are understandably close to her heart.

Ms Minns’ family history has inspired her to be active in politics since 1988.

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She said: “My distant cousin Earnest Lowthian was Labour’s very first candidate for Carlisle in the 1918 General Election and his headstone in Carlisle Cemetery says that he was a pioneering trade unionist.

“And I also have my great grandfather John Hodgson-Minns, a Conservative councillor and alderman of the city. Although I don’t share his politics, I do share his passion for the city.

“At the opening of Caldew bridges he said ‘as a public servant, all of us should hope to leave Carlisle better than we found it.”

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She said that a number of services are not up to scratch in Carlisle “and they are best fixed under a Labour government.”

“Our buses are too infrequent, don’t go where people need them to go and are too expensive.”

She added that Government needs to invest in NHS services to ensure there are enough GPs in the area and residents do not wait over three weeks for an appointment.

“These are absolutely basic things we need to get right for people in Carlisle.

“We need to bring in well-skilled, well-paid jobs by encouraging businesses and Government departments to choose Carlisle as the place they want their staff to live and work.

“We need to reimagine what the high street is, we need to make it a destination and not just for retail but also entertainment.

“What can we do with our high-street that gives people a reason to go there.”

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