In an open primary meeting in Welshpool in July 2010, Russell George was selected as the Conservative party candidate to fight the 2011 Welsh Assembly elections in Montgomeryshire.
Russell was born in Welshpool in 1974 and brought up and attended school in Montgomeryshire. Apart from 3 years when he attended university in Birmingham, achieving a BA(Hons) degree in Information and media studies, he has lived in Montgomeryshire all his life.
In 2008 Russell was elected to Powys County Council to represent Newtown central ward. He owns a business in Newtown town centre and is well known for being a committed councillor who is aware of the local issues.
He was elected by the County Councils’ Welsh Conservative group to be one of its representatives on the Council’s executive management board, a position he still holds and in which he is the portfolio holder for Customer Services and ICT. As a board member he is very aware of the local issues affecting the county. His ward on the Council is the most populated in Montgomeryshire, and as such he enjoys helping its residents.
Russell’s interests include keeping healthy, he has been a member of the local gym and circuit training club for over 10 years and has recently taken up cycling. He is an active member of Hope Community Church in Newtown and as such has been involved in many projects that support the community.
As a candidate he is fully committed to succeed in next May’s election and to fly the flag for Montgomeryshire in the Assembly. He is keen to focus on finding solutions to the many problems within Montgomeryshire.
His priorities are to retain and improve local services and find more efficient ways of delivering services in the light of the public sector budget squeeze. He feels it is important to support local businesses. As candidate he intends to carry on the work as a county councillor in challenging the Welsh Assembly Government on Montgomeryshire’s poor transport infrastructure, and most importantly on making an announcement for an early start date on the Newtown bypass which he believes is crucial to the regeneration of the local economy.
