General Election 2024: Man standing to tackle Somerset's 'third world' water

An independent candidate standing for North East Somerset and Hanham is hoping people will vote for him to make a statement against the privatised water industry.

Nicholas Hales wants to see the water supply taken back into public ownership. He told the Local Democracy Reporting Service: “Things have just deteriorated so much that we are in danger of having a third world water system.”

He said: “The villain in a James Bond movie was trying to get a monopoly on water and that’s really what the government’s method of putting it into private hands has done. It’s provided a number of different monopolies around the country where we can’t change. We are stuck with whoever has won the licence.”

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He added: “It’s not really a very good system and everybody ought to be able to have a right to water.”

Mr Hales knows the water well, having been a Royal Navy reservist and involved in the fishery protection patrol in the Irish Sea. Mr Hales is based in Bath — where, for 30 years, spent weekend mornings taking the tea round and helping people with their menus — but wanted to stand where there was a more “open field” so as not to take votes from the Liberal Democrats in the city.

He is retired now, having worked in safety critical at the Ministry of Defence. He said: “I’m passionate about the environment. I’m passionate around people’s safety as well.”

Mr Hales added that he had taken part in conservation projects in England and abroad during holidays, and had previously been involved with the Green Party and stood for Walcot in Bath in local elections. He said: “I opposed the “watermelons,” who rather obviously and blatantly created an image of themselves as hugely socialist with a green veneer on the outside — which is what a watermelon is.

“Whereas I’m far far more concerned about extinction of species and things like that, and I think they should aim more for middle of the road.”

But he said he thought Carla Denyer, the co-leader who is hoping to win Bristol Central in the election, was moderate. He said: “It would be nice to see some more Green seats but, locally, there’s not much point for me struggling with them.”

He’s keen to make tackling the privatised water the focus of his campaign. He said: “If we leave other issues to be the feature, nothing will get done.”

He added: “It’s a downhill slope as far as I can see and we need to stop it.”

The full list of candidates standing for the North East Somerset and Hanham constituency is:

• Barmy Brunch (Monster Raving Loony Party)

• Edmund Cannon (Green)

• Nicholas Hales (Independent)

• Paul MacDonnell (Reform UK)

• Dan Norris (Labour)

• Jacob Rees-Mogg (Conservative)

• Dine Romero (Liberal Democrat)