Liberal Democrats Adopt DR Michael Heavens

An enthusiastic meeting of Epping Forest Liberal Democrats adopted Dr Michael Heavens as their Parliamentary Candidate for the Constituency in the General Election on 5 May 2005.

Dr Heavens, a former Chigwell NHS GP and psychiatrist, was first elected to the District Council in 1984, has chaired several committees and been Chairman and Leader of the Council. For the last year he has been the Cabinet member for Housing. He is a member of the East of England Regional Assembly's Health & Social Inclusion Panel and a substitute member of the Planning Panel

He has been a board member of the Chigwell Riding Trust for Special Needs for over ten years and is its current chairman. He has a long involvement in local community work as member of several Rotary clubs.

He stood for Parliament here in 2001, when the Liberal Democrat share of the vote increased by 5.2%.

At the meeting he said, "Although, on past results, some people might regard me as an outsider, I believe that, from my long and varied experience, I have a breadth of knowledge about local residents' needs that make me the best person to represent Epping Forest at Westminster".