Meet Katrina Best, LibDem District Council candidate for Chiddingly, East Hoathly & Waldron

KATRINA BEST - LibDem District Council candidate for the Wealden ward of CHIDDINGLY, EAST HOATHLY & WALDRON

Katrina Best moved to Chiddingly with her Canadian-born husband Alan and their two children just over two years ago, and loves being part of this friendly and vibrant community. An author & freelance writer/editor by profession, Katrina is actively involved with the community-owned and run Chiddingly Village Shop & Cafe, both as a volunteer and on the Management Board, as well as with the Chiddingly Arts Festival. She is also standing independently as a candidate for the Chiddingly Parish Council.

The family previously lived in Piltdown, where Katrina was an active member of the Residents' Association and where, in 2016, she and another local resident spearheaded a successful grass roots (cross/non-party) campaign to overturn the then-proposed Wealden District electoral boundary changes (also those for East Sussex County Council) in and around Uckfield. "They had been bizarrely drawn up, for reasons we could only speculate about, by a handful of Tory Executive Councillors behind closed doors, and the vast majority of local residents knew nothing about it," explains Katrina. "The draft boundaries were proposing to combine each of Uckfield's existing urban wards with large chunks of the rural wards that surround the town - zigzagging across the A22 and into the countryside, and thus totally contravening the independent LGCBE's policies which, amongst other key criteria, seek to ensure parish, district and county wards are contiguous wherever possible and that linked communities are not separated."

Against the odds, the campaign was mostly successful and the LGBCE adopted 95% of their counter-proposals, overturning the worst of the changes. "Unfortunately, there was one exception -- Little Horsted, because the numbers could not be made to work," says Katrina. "So it is now annexed from its sister village Isfield and instead joined with Uckfield Ridgewood." However, she says that her fellow LibDem candidate James Edwards, who is the WDC candidate in the new ward of Uckfield Ridgewood & Little Horsted, is fully aware of the situation and has a couple of potential solutions for righting this wrong in the future.

It was in great part her involvement with this local campaign - and its success - that motivated Katrina to step up and try to help affect positive change by becoming more actively involved in community matters, including in local politics - she is also on the Wealden LibDems Executive Committee. "I'm passionate about Community and concerned about any and all local issues, including the environment and finding new ways to provide affordable housing for the many people who are being priced out of their own communities."

Please click here for more information on Katrina Best, including contact email