They’ve been in the wilderness in Swindon for two years, but the borough’s last Liberal Democrat councillor is looking forward to the coming elections.

Two years after he lost his Eastcott seat on Swindon Borough Council after decades of service, Stan Pajak is back on the campaign trail.

He is standing in his old stamping ground and says he’s getting a good reception. But more than that, for the first time in some time his party have managed to field a candidate in all 19 wards being contested this year.

Mr Pajak said: “We’ve got a good slate of candidates across the board this year. It’s helped that you only have to find two people to nominate you now.

“But I feel we are coming back up after some difficult years especially after the national party was in the coalition.

“People are not happy at the state of things; the doctors, the teachers, the cost of living, inflation is still running at more than 10 per cent. It’s a local election, but people often use it to send a message to the government about how they feel – and I think they’re not feeling good.”

Although he was still in the council chamber until 2021, Mr Pajak saw his party’s representation drop there until he was its lone councillor. But he says it’s important to have a variety of parties and voices in the council chamber: “You need to have a proper representative council, so people from all over the political spectrum feel they ate being presented.

“If you look at big decisions like the Local plan, which has had to be started again – you needed lots of voices to be heard rather than it to be dominated by party politics and the decisions made before the debate in the meeting.”

As well as himself, Mr Pajak’s wife and daughter are also standing at this election. He said: “It wouldn’t be a Swindon election without a Pajak standing.

“I do think we are getting a hearing from people - they are telling us  that they don’t like the way things going, so   this is a chance to make that plain and send a message to the council and to the government.”

Mr Pajak’s opponents in Eastcott are Paul Dixon, standing for the Labour Party, The Conservative Raul Fernandes and Chris Noyce for the Green Party.

The election will be held on Thursday May 4.