THE Green Party's candidate in the race to become the first mayor of North Yorkshire and York launched his Craven campaign in Skipton.

Kevin Foster was in Skipton over the Easter bank holiday weekend hitting the campaign trail ahead of the mayoral election on Thursday, May 2.

The North Yorkshire councillor, who represents Hipswell and Colburn, spoke to residents and listened to their concerns.

He discussed the sharp gap between what local people can afford to pay for housing and the prices of what has been newly built, and outlined his conviction that every improved local bus service helps cut off communities and takes traffic away from overcrowded destinations like Malham.

The needs of farming communities figured prominently as he explained how he wanted to make better connections between local producers and local purchasers like the council.

He promised that he would do things differently because he was interested in working collaboratively across political divides to get things done, and was interested in long term sustainable improvements and in responding to the needs of local communities.

The Green Party has two of the nine seats on North Yorkshire Council representing the former Craven area, the Conservatives have four, the North Yorkshire Independents have two and one councillor stands for the Conservatives and the Independent group.

Also standing in May's election are: Keane Duncan (Conservative); David Skaith (Labour); Felicity Cunliffe-Lister (Lib Dem); Keith Tordoff (Independent) and Paul Haslam (Independent).