The management consultant who lives in Croft Lane is the Liberal Democrat candidate for South Swindon, where she appears to have changed her name to Sue Stebbing.

Dr Farrant/Stebbing was Newbury’s mayor in 2000, and an ardent campaigner for a cinema. She is currently responsible for keeping an eye on the local NHS for West Berkshire Council.

She has already used her local contacts by getting Newbury MP David Rendel to join a campaign to stop Bath University building a university campus on the edge of town.

Elsewhere, Vodafone’s head of marketing Martin Tod, of Donnington Square, is standing for the Lib Dems against Sir George Young in North West Hampshire.