Next of our local council candidate profiles for the Ballymoney DEA, is Independent Ian Stevenson.
Mr Ian Stevenson will stand as the only Independent candidate in the Ballymoney DEA.
Ian was born and raised on Union Street in the town and has served as a councillor for 18 years on both the legacy and the new sunper Causeway Coast & Glen’s Borough Council (CCGBC). As well as a councillor Ian is also a trained nurse by profession
Over the years, Ian has been a resounding voice for the town and his passion for Ballymoney is evident to anyone who chats to Ian. He worked on several major achievements and improvements to the town in previous years, none more so than his proposal of rate reductions of 0% and 0.25%.
Other areas Ian has lobbied for were the new Christmas lights for the town, fighting to retain several community facilities and trying to get work started on the town ‘Masterplan’, this on top of the other daily electorate issue, has kept Ian incredibly busy over the previous 18 years.
Ian had up until last year stood for his 18 years in council as a DUP councillor but in this election he will fight to retain his seat as an Independent.
STATS
In the last local council elections in 2014, when council transitioned into CCGBC, Ian polled 593 1st preference votes. He was eventually elected at stage 11 making the quota with transfers from TUV’s William Blair.
MANDATE
This is the first time Ian has stood without party backing as an independent.
Ian has stated that, if elected, he plans to hold the people with power within council to account and to continue to work on the issues that he lobbied for in previous years without ‘needing consent’ (now that he’s independent of party) to do so.
Ian plans to continue to work on the day to day issues that affect the electorate and vows to only be answerable to them.
