CAMPAIGNING councillor Carrie Harper has pledged to "fight Wrexham's corner" after she was chosen to stand for Plaid Cymru in the next Westminster election.

Caia Park born and bred, the mother of two has built up a reputation as a campaigner over the past 15 years. She was first elected as a councillor the Queensway ward in 2008 and again in 2017.

She said: "Regardless of what the current crop of MPs decide in London over the coming weeks over Brexit, for a better future for our area we need someone who will fight Wrexham's corner and refuse to take a backward step.

"Everyone's been distracted by Brexit and that means that crucial issues such as child poverty, the NHS and climate change have been neglected by those in power.

"Half of the children in the area I represent and the area where I grew up are living in poverty, something Plaid Cymru is determined to address directly.

"I recently moved a motion in Wrexham Council calling for action to tackle the climate emergency, where we have to do our bit for the planet globally by acting locally.

"I'm also very concerned about the state of our NHS, which is under attack in England from privatising Tories and here in Wales from ineffective managerial Labour. We have a desperate shortage of GPs, nurses and other health professionals across the region and Plaid Cymru's long-held view is that we need to recruit, retain and train 1,000 extra doctors and 5,000 extra nurses in Wales to take pressure off our hard-working NHS staff.

"At present we're wasting huge amounts of health spending on managerial consultants as well as agencies who cream off a lot of funding. A long-term plan to improve the workforce as well as integrating health and social care is our priority."

Ian Lucas, who currently represents Wrexham in parliament, announced two weeks ago that he intended to stand down at the next general election, with Labour yet to announce his potential successor.