Gill Westcott is a Mid Devon District councillor. She’s taught in primary and secondary schools, helped grow and sell vegetables and dairy produce from a Devon smallholding and run craft-based camping holidays.

She helped found Cheriton Bishop Community Land Trust, to provide social housing in her village, and is a director of New Prosperity Devon which promotes a strong sustainable local economy and Community Wealth Building.

Gill says: ‘I believe we urgently need better access to health and public services in rural areas, and more genuinely affordable housing.

‘Local services have been starved of cash.  Councils need the money and powers to maintain essential services and provide what they know their communities need.’  

Water companies have dumped sewage into our rivers and coastal waters in wet and sometimes dry weather, while paying huge dividends to shareholders. Greens want water supply to be in public ownership; and to support farmers better to look after the countryside and nature as well as producing quality food.

Reducing our climate impacts and preparing communities to be resilient through heatwaves and storms is needed urgently. Investing in cheap renewable energy and insulating homes cuts our energy bills and reduces dependence on foreign suppliers and the world market.  We also need realistic measures to support our local economies and build community wealth, together with a fairer tax and benefit system.  

A growing Green vote pushes our policies up the agenda, brings media coverage, and puts pressure on other parties to act on fairness and sustainability.

Contact Gill at: [email protected]

Jeffrey decided to stand as a candidate for Reform in Central Devon, as, like so many, he had grown tired of self-serving politicians who make promise after promise and then, once elected, simply don`t deliver and return to investing in themselves. They all appear to work to a Westminster voice in their constituency rather than the other way around, where people would be represented by taking their voices to Parliament.

He intends not only to provide a voice for those who live here in Central Devon in Westminster but also to give my full-time attention to the post, a claim that he feels very few politicians can make as they have many other vested interests that show as other incomes, which is time away from the job. He has lived in constituencies where MPs were regularly mocked in the media for being out of the country for substantial periods of the year on private work and others that show large incomes that could suggest that their role as an MP is not their priority. He pledges to solely work for Central Devon if he’s elected.

Reform as a party and himself as an individual both represent common-sense politics. As someone who has lived and worked an ordinary life, he speaks the language of the people in his communities and understands the challenges people experience.

People are tired of words, empty promises, and no action, and so it's time for Reform in every sense of the word, and he wants to deliver that for the people of Central Devon.

Mark grew up in Plymouth before going to college to study biochemistry. He spent his early career in marketing, then founded one of the country’s first internet businesses. Latterly, he worked in the entertainment industry. He came back to Devon in 2001. Mark lives in the constituency in one of the county’s smallest hamlets. He’s married. He enjoys films, quizzes, walking (especially on Dartmoor) and he cooks a pretty reasonable curry. He is calling for a rural revival, arguing that towns, villages, and hamlets have been ignored for too long, with funding and resources being centralised in cities. Key to that rural revival is ensuring the farming community gets the support they need to weather these difficult times. He is strongly supportive of the Liberal Democrat call to provide another £1 billion of support for farmers. His key priorities if chosen to represent his neighbours are:

He believes his commitment to campaigns to reopen wards at Okehampton Community Hospital, get potholes fixed and keep the mobile library service show that he is the champion that local people in Central Devon need to ensure the community thrives.

Mel was elected as the first MP for Central Devon in 2010 and served for the last 14 years. He has worked tirelessly to support constituents, whether through casework, raising issues in parliament or serving as a government minister including in the Cabinet.

He has also been a strong advocate for improved frontline services in rural communities. Recently, he worked to help establish the new police desk in Okehampton. He has also worked with our Integrated Care Board towards the improved provision of local healthcare, including for our local hospital in Okey and for the more widespread local commissioning of Minor Eye Care Services.

Another of his missions has been to improve local transport services. Mel worked with stakeholders to secure the funding for the Okehampton to Crediton to Exeter line which now runs a full service for the first time since the Beeching cuts. He also played a key role in securing £13.4 million of government funding for a brand-new station in Okehampton which will also operate as a wider transport hub including buses and EV charging points.

Mel has a strong track record of delivering for local organisations, having supported and helped raise funds for numerous community enterprises. Central Devon has benefitted greatly from the government’s Community Ownership Fund, with a recent success being the Kennerleigh Community Shop’s award of £147,781.

The constituency is one of the most rural in England, and post offices are a vital asset to communities. Residents rely heavily on them in Central Devon, which has the fourth-highest number of any constituency in England. This is why supporting post offices has been at the top of his priorities from day one. Even prior to first becoming an MP, he ran a huge ‘save our post offices’ campaign, collecting 14,000 signatures door to door for a petition that was presented to Parliament.

Mel is a passionate believer in the power of education. He successfully campaigned for additional funding for Devon schools, and he continues to work with stakeholders to ensure that the case for fair funding is heard in Westminster.

Agriculture sits at the heart of the constituency. Mel meets regularly with local farmers and has represented their views in Parliament. He did this most recently at the Farm to Fork Summit in Downing Street. As a Minister, he introduced legislation to fine supermarkets found to have dealt unfairly with farmers.

When he was Chair of the Treasury Select Committee, Mel produced a major report on tackling climate change an issue with which he has been heavily engaged for almost 20 years. In Government, he served as Paymaster General, Financial Secretary to the Treasury and Leader of the House of Commons. He continues to serve in Cabinet as Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, leading major reforms to our welfare system including making sure that the overall cost of welfare is sustainable and fair to the taxpayer.

If re-elected, he will continue to deliver for residents.

Ollie Pearson has lived and worked in Devon for over 20 years.

He will be an MP focused on Devon, not Westminster. You’ll see him around, meet him at local events, and attend regular surgeries. He promises to listen and act on what you tell him. 

As your MP, he will be a champion for Devon towns and villages.

As part of a Labour Government, he will ensure we get back to economic stability, ending the chaos of the Tory government and bringing down mortgages and energy costs. 

He will ensure we have NHS dentist and GP appointments in good time and when you need them.

In our schools, he’ll make sure we have more teachers in key subjects and free breakfast clubs.

He will support our communities to take back control of local bus services, back our farmers and support high-quality local produce. 

Together with constituents, he will address the social care crisis and the housing crisis that Devon faces, with integrated local health services and the new homes people need. 

Labour will create Great British Energy, a publicly owned, clean power company that will cut bills, boost energy security and help tackle the climate crisis.

Finally, there can be no excuses, no delay. Failing water companies need to be put under tough special measures now and stop sewage dumping in rivers and the sea for good.

“It’s time for change. If you elect me as your MP I promise to always stand up for you,” said Ollie.