A MATCHBOROUGH man bidding to become Redditch’s next MP has pledged to change the country by changing the town.
Seth Colton will be standing as an independent at next May’s General Election and insists he is the only person who can deliver real change because he is not tied to a political party and a set agenda.
The 50-year-old, who says his political compass puts him in the same bracket as Nelson Mandela and Gandhi, has an ambitious plan for Redditch and would use changes implemented in the borough as an example for the rest of the UK to follow.
“If we are prepared not to change, things will stay the same and I want people to move forward.” he said.
“When people say to me ‘you politicians are all the same’ – I’m not because I have a full-time job, my fiancée is a single mum, I’ve been unemployed, I’m a father, a grandfather the list goes on.
“We need somebody to take us forward and to change things and I know I can’t change the country, but what I can do and I am determined to do, is make Redditch the heartbeat of this country.”
The full-time kitchen and bedroom designer has a number of ideas he would like to implement if elected by working with different organisations. They include ensuring every company took on an apprentice and was rewarded for doing so; free swimming lessons to help unearth the next Rebecca Adlington and raising educational standards by inspiring young people to achieve more and recognising those achievements.
He would make tackling obesity a priority and would set up the Redditch Obesity Challenge, which as well as teaching children about nutrition and basic cooking skills would reward them for being active with extra points for getting their parents involved. Their achievements would be celebrated with a Redditch Fitness Day.
He would also create a Redditch Assembly, made up of businesses and residents which he would pay to meet him in London to brief him on local issues so he could better represent the town’s interests, and ten per cent of his salary would be donated to supporting the work of community groups in the borough.
Historically independent candidates have performed poorly in elections in Redditch and Mr Colton, who is self-funding his campaign, will be up against it when compared with the spending power of the main parties, but he is undeterred.
“I want to stop this ‘I don’t vote because you are all the same’ because having someone who is independent, fighting for the people of Redditch is different.”
