Reading Labour Party has announced its final set of candidates for the Borough elections, the first party to do so.
Standing for Labour in Caversham on 6 May will be Lesley Owen, who has lived there for 35 years. Her daughters attended Thameside and Highdown Schools and she's been a Governor at Thameside and Chair of Governors at Caversham Nursery. Lesley's recently retired after 20 years as an administrator at the University of Reading, and now looks forward to becoming even more involved with the local community. She is taking over from Bobbie Ahluwalia, who has had to step down as a candidate after having had to move to the Midlands for work reasons.
Labour's candidate in Thames will be Nick Stringer, who joined Labour Students while at Keele University, where he was active in opposing the rise of the BNP. Since August 2008 Nick's worked as office manager for Martin Salter MP in Oxford Road.
Former Labour Councillor Helen Hathaway will be standing again for Labour in Peppard. Helen works in Reading University Library, and has a particular interest in education, being a Governor of two Reading schools, and in arts and leisure.
Finally, Labour's candidate in Tilehurst will be Haji Banaras, who has lived in this country for 30 years and been a taxi driver in Reading for 20 of them. Haji's key priority is to make Reading an even better and safer place in which to live.
Labour Leader Jo Lovelock says: "The Labour team in Reading is full of enthusiasm, with many ideas for taking Reading forward, especially as we come out of the recession. I think we are fielding a particularly strong slate this year, with a mixture of young and old, six women candidates out of 15, and one candidate each from the Pakistani and Sikh communities. Candidates are working hard, getting a good response on the doorsteps and I am confident of a good result."