In the run up to the Stroud District Council elections on May 5, the SNJ will be profiling each of the candidates standing in all 27 wards.

Each party candidate will give voters information about who they are, what their pledges are and why you should vote for them.

These profiles will be posted alphabetically by ward over the next week.

Today we feature Uplands, Valley, The Stanleys, Thrupp and Wotton-Under-Edge.

Thrupp - there are three candidates standing in this ward. Number of seats – one.

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  • Rod Beer - Labour

Rod Beer has lived in Brimscombe for six years. His background is in teaching and he still works part-time as an English teacher. Rod is married with two adult daughters.

He is a keen supporter of local football, in particular Brimscombe and Thrupp and Forest Green Rovers. Locally he is committed, among other issues, to improving safety on the A419 and ensuring local people's housing needs are met.

Rod is committed to working for a fairer society and to continuing the excellent work of our Labour-led and trusted Council.

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  • Steve Wigzell – Conservative

On May 5 you have your only chance to vote for who will run Stroud District Council until 2020.

I’m passionate about places like Thrupp ward, where the young and the old, the frail and the strong, the better off and less well-off join together to sustain a thriving community where people look out for each other, help each other and enjoy doing things together.

So I would do everything I can to ensure all our communities enjoy efficiently run, high quality services; help local enterprises thrive so as to create good, local jobs; promote brown field development; and use taxpayers’ money wisely.

Above all, I would ensure a Conservative-led Council does it with you, not to you. After four years of rainbow Labour-led coalition, SDC has long-term debt of £95m and a pension deficit of £45m.

This is not a great place to be. We need a safe pair of hands to provide good front-line services for everyone whilst keeping tax rises in check; gets the investments Stroud needs: and makes the Local Plan work for local communities. Conservative hands.

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  • Martin Whiteside - Green

Martin's aim is always to listen to local concerns and to do his utmost to get what is best for the area. In particular he has worked closely with the Parish Councils and local groups.

I have lived with my wife Liz, in Thrupp for 18 years; our children went to Thrupp School. I am a keen vegetable grower; I enjoy walking and cycling and a pint at the wonderful Stroud Brewery.

My day job is to advise governments and organisations like Oxfam, the UK Government and the UN on environment and development issues, with an increasing focus on climate change. This means I work with a number of projects, particularly in Africa and Asia.

The reason I am standing again because I believe we must improve the way we manage our wonderful local environment and develop our community. I have achieved quite a lot of changes over the last twelve years, but there is still much more to do.

In particular if I am re-elected I would like to guide the redevelopment of Brimscombe Port, having helped raised £3 million to get this project started in the last year.