The Liberal Democrat Candidate for Chippenham, has said that the Lib Dem team in the area are speaking to “a thousand residents per month.”

Sarah Gibson will be standing in the Chippenham constituency at this year’s general election and explained that she has been campaigning since she was selected in May 2022.

She said: “I enjoy it enormously, I love talking to people.”  

Ms Gibson was brought up in Box and after qualifying as an architect, she set up a practice in Barcelona, before coming back to Wiltshire in 2013.

She listed her experience in planning, net-zero design and community engagement as useful assets.

She said: “Having a technical background, having lived abroad and worked abroad for governments and local governments, gives me that ability to look at things from the outside, without losing the fact that I am from here, so I care.”

Ms Gibson was elected as a councillor for Bradford on Avon South in 2017, but said she quickly became aware of the importance of national support and funding for local communities.

She noted that residents’ biggest concerns are access to healthcare, the cost-of-living crisis and the environment.

She said: “Talking to the doctors and the hospital, you realise that it isn’t about throwing more money at it, it’s actually about an intelligent and integrated approach to care.”

According to Ms Gibson, her first priority would be getting “an integrated care system off the ground.”  

She also said that with a voice in Westminster she would work on a “long overdue” cross-party reform of the planning system.

She added: “I would want to start working with whoever is elected in Swindon South and make sure that there was a joined-up thinking.

“I’m a great believer in collaboration, nobody does anything on their own, people work so much better as a team.”

Ms Gibson mentioned visiting Wessex Water engineers and treatment plants, as well as speaking to large employers in the area.

She claimed that “more emphasis and pride” in local colleges and further education would promote the “IT skills or management skills that some of our better employers are looking for.”

She described “vibrant” local communities, which, “with the right support and a really hard-working MP, could actually be in a much better place.”

The Lib Dem candidate reported being a member of the party since university and concluded: “I don’t think the current Tory party is the party that represents the traditional values that they hold dear.

“The Liberal Democrats have consistently shown that they support a fairer world for everybody.”