He has lived in Worcestershire since 1978 and represented the Liberal Democrats at district and county council levels.

He fought South Worcestershire in the General Elections of 1987 and 1992, and stood for Worcester City in 1997.

He now lives in Malvern and is managing director of a small independent holiday company. He served for two years as national chairman of the Association of Independent Tour Operators, lobbying Government and the EU on behalf of the small business.

WORCESTERSHIRE'S low ranking on education spending is a legacy of many years of Tory rule at County Hall, when they seemed to take a perverse pleasure in spending even lower than their own Government's suggested level.

The current Lib-Lab partnership running the county council has tried to prevail on Whitehall to recognise this historic unfairness, but without much success.

Liberal Democrats are committed to spending an extra £3bn on education nationally, raising a penny on income tax if necessary.

This gives room to iron out the historic injustice of Worcestershire's funding. The solution is to elect the maximum number of Lib Dem councillors and MPs to bring pressure on any future Government.

WE support the campaign for the full functioning of Kidderminster Hospital.

If this is successful, then the pressure on Worcester's new hospital will be reduced.

At the time of the last General Election, I warned against the constraints of the Private Finance Initiative and its effect on the size of the new hospital. Little did I think Labour would adopt the same failed policy.

We're committed to a fully-costed programme to provide 10,000 hospital beds (nationally). One small consolation of the inadequate Worcester hospital scheme is that there's room to expand on the existing site.

Your Lib-Dem MP will ensure that we get our fair share of extra beds.

BRITAIN'S drug policy is failing.

Up to 40 per cent of schoolchildren are exposed to drugs.

Years of "drugs tsars" and expensive advertising have had little effect of the unstoppable rise of the cancer of drugs in our society.

Much crime is related to drug-taking. Liberal Democrats believe that the time has come for a true and in-depth analysis of where we have failed and why. We support a Royal Commission on drug policy without pre-conditions.

THERE'S no doubt that, due to global warming, flooding will continue and water levels once seen once in a generation will occur with greater frequency.

Worcester City Council seems to be stunned by the seriousness of the problem, but has little power or money for positive action. Certainly, the system of flood wardens is inadequate.

We propose a national task force to look at flood control measures. It's unfair to expect Worcester taxpayers to carry the burden alone.

It's vital that Britain supports international agreements, like the Kyoto Accord, to control greenhouse gases.

THERE'S no need or desire for Worcester to compete with Cheltenham and Merry Hill.

The expansion of supermarkets isn't a priority, although it's worth noting that the Tallow Hill area has been approved for development as a retail park.

We feel that the encouragement of specialist and high service-level shops would suit Worcester much better.

Far more important is to use the many brownfield sites available to bring in manufacturing and service industries.

We're committed to using green taxes and brownfield development grants to bring industry to our city.

Lib Dem county councillors have been the prime movers in the proposal to bring a new railway station to Norton, which would create jobs and a superb transport infrastructure with a direct link to the Channel Tunnel.