ONE of the candidates expected to battle Wyre Forest MP Dr Richard Taylor at the next general election has put forward her vision for Britain and the district.

The Liberal Party's prospective parliamentary candidate, Fran Oborski, has cast herself as a "strong voice for Wyre Forest".

Setting out a summary of her policies to woo voters at the ballot box at the expected May election, Mrs Oborski has put forward priorities for the UK and Wyre Forest.

It was essential to restore accident and emergency services to Kidderminster Hospital, the long-standing Wyre Forest district councillor said.

The hospital's birth centre, which is still closed after baby deaths, was a vital service for residents, she went on.

If elected MP, Mrs Oborski said she would work to "ensure a first rate birth centre at Kidderminster Hospital, with post-natal beds for all local mums who want them".

Post-natal beds, which care for mums who have had babies elsewhere in Worcestershire, were withdrawn from the centre last month.

Mrs Oborski said the Tories had "made a total mess" of the controversial schools shake-up at Worcestershire County Council. The Conservatives pushed through a change to primary and secondary schools for 2007.

"We need a rescue package based on what Wyre Forest people want for local schools," she said.

Wyre Forest, meanwhile, needed a "proper" regeneration plan, she said.

National priorities included providing more dentists, full pensions for married women, replacing council tax and scrapping Labour's identity cards plan, if implemented.

Mrs Oborski is the first Wyre Forest candidate to put forward an election manifesto. Labour, The Conservatives and the UK Independence Party are set to field candidates. Dr Taylor has strongly indicated he will contest his seat.

Mrs Oborski said: "In Wyre Forest a whole slate of candidates will, in reality, come down to three real choices.

"You can back one of the big parties who are only interested in the national scene and will do nothing for Wyre Forest. You can back a single issue party which will pursue that issue and nothing else.

"The third alternative will be to back a strong voice for Wyre Forest."