Former Conservative MP Andrew Pelling is running as a Labour councillor at next year’s council election.

Labour Party Members made their first selection at a meeting yesterday evening. 

Mr Pelling ran as an independent MP in the last 2010 election but lost his seat to the Conservatives.

The other candidates to emerge from hustings are Waddon residents and former civil servants Robert Canning and Joy Prince.

Mr Canning, an economist, has given up his Whitehall job to concentrate on the Waddon election.

Mr Pelling said the Conservatives used to represent value for money but now have a tarnished reputation.

He said: “I hope with my past experience that I can make an input into Labour's local financial plan to try to protect as much of local services as possible while recognising that more budget cuts are inevitable with huge reductions in grant from Government.

“In this respect we'll run a positive campaign. We want to bring a new approach where councillors work much harder in their community protecting local services by working closely with residents to draw upon their skills to be more involved in local services,.

“As councillors we want to be stronger local champions for Waddon.

“I hope that my years of experience at the local, London Assembly and parliamentary level representing and advocating on behalf of people can be used well to benefit Waddon.

“Waddon's interests need additional support with the impact of a possible Hammerson/Westfield development of the town centre. Also Croydon is in crisis and I would like to do what I can in aiding its recovery.”

He added: “Robert, Joy and I have been engaging with Waddon people on the doorstep since August of 2011 but an early selection shows how determined we are to win this key seat that Labour needs to gain to win control of the council.”

In the last election, Conservatives won the Waddon seat with a majority of 345, one of the smallest majorities of the election.