SURREY residents will go to the polls on Thursday, May 4 to elect their county council representatives for the next four years.

Here we include personal statements by the three candidates vying for election in Waverley Western Villages:

*DAVID HARMER - CONSERVATIVES

My wife and I brought up our four sons in Hindhead. I had been a teacher, later working in the computer industry, then in telecomms. I was a Waverley Borough Councillor for eight years, and have been County Councillor for Waverley Western Villages since 2005.??Biggest success in business: leading a rescue team that made the telecomms work for the City’s Big Bang project: in politics, leading a cross-party group of 90 Councils in a national Capital Receipts campaign, saving about £9 million for Waverley.

My priorities for the villages: Superfast broadband, school places, roads, protecting the countryside.

*SUSAN RYLAND - GREEN PARTY

Susan Ryland’s life is in creative thinking and sustainability. She works with artists, engineers, teachers and scientists. She moved to Surrey as a student and has lived with her husband and family in Beacon Hill for over twenty years.?? “You can see cuts everywhere: in your roads, your schools, your recycling centres, in care homes and support for disabled people. Things are getting worse right on your doorstep. What’s gone wrong? Can you expect the people who caused these problems to fix them? I pledge to bring fresh thinking to our county council, to deliver the changes we need.”

*GEOFFREY WHITBY - LIB DEMS

Having once been a Haslemere town councillor it would be a privilege to represent the people of the area again. I have lived in Beacon Hill for over 30 years.

As a keen cyclist and amateur astronomer, I will work to balance planned development with access to and protection of the outstanding countryside we are lucky to have. I want road surfaces improved. Working in the NHS as an audiologist, I know that adequate long term funding of the NHS and social care is needed. At Surrey I would work to protect these services – as well as education which is also suffering from real terms cutbacks.