FORMER Wiltshire Council leader, Jane Scott stepped down from her By Brook seat last month after serving as a councillor for 25 years.

Two candidates will go head to head in the by-election for the North Wiltshire ward will be held on April 2 to fill the vacant seat.

The conservative party selected, Nick Botterill as their new candidate to replace Baroness Scott and Lesley Bennet is the candidate for the Liberal Democrats.

In 1987, Lesley Bennet was elected as Malmesbury's first female mayor. In 1992, she was also elected to North Wiltshire District and Wiltshire County Council where she served until 2005.

Lesley is committed to getting fair funding for schools and the police force, restoring the youth service, ‘real action’ on climate change, protecting greenspaces from ‘speculative house builders’, stopping cuts to rural buses and bringing in schemes that work to end social isolation in elderly and vulnerable people.

Conservative candidate Nick Botterill spent 22 years as a councillor in the London borough of Hammersmith and Fulham and co-founded the Teddies Nursery chain.

Nick will focus on four widely felt concerns in the area, including rural crime, the state of road sides, surfaces and litter on the roads, rural bus services and housing development in By Brook.