'Hartlepool needs a change' says Heritage Party by-election candidate

Heritage Party representative Claire Martin is one of the 16 candidates who will be contesting the Parliamentary by-election on Thursday, May 6.

Mrs Martin, North East area organiser for the party, said Hartlepool needs a change and has pledged to do everything she can to help people in the area.

The 46-year-old said: “We need a change in the town, we’ve had the same two parties for ever, and I thought you’ve got this opportunity now girl, go for it.

“I’m from Hartlepool, I live in Hartlepool, I’ve got a lot of ties in the area, I’ve got family who own businesses, friends who have got businesses.

“Whatever I get asked to do, I will do to the best of my abilities and see where I can get with it.”

She added she has been both an employer and employee in the town and has been involved in volunteering and her local neighbourhood watch group.

Mrs Martin said priorities to tackle include bringing services back to the University Hospital of Hartlepool, getting more police on the streets and reopening the town’s magistrates courts and police cells.

She said: “People want to see a presence of police on the streets and they want the cells open as well.

“With a town the size of Hartlepool it’s ridiculous that we haven’t got the accident and emergency facility.

“If we get other facilities back open, we may well have a fighting chance of getting accident and emergency back.”

Mrs Martin, who is also standing in the local elections in the Victoria ward, is a systematic kinesiologist and primitive reflex integration therapist, as well as a part time forensic psychology student.

She said the Heritage Party has grown since its formation in May last year and encouraged voters to back her at the polls next month.

She said: “We’re not going to go away, because we’re not a one policy party, we cover everything, we’re certainly growing.

“I’m not controversial and I don’t dislike any members of society, I think we’re all in this together and we all need to help each other, not be against each other.”

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