Liberal Democrats

Aged just 22 and still at university, Ben Lawrie is the youngest person standing to be an Angus Council candidate.

However, the Liberal Democrats’ candidate in the Monifieth and Sidlaw ward insists his age is an advantage in his bid to be a councillor.

He thinks he can offer a fresh perspective at a time when people are looking for “something different”.

The St Andrews University student’s campaign strategy is a mixture of old and new techniques.

As well as a leafleting campaign which has seen some homes receive up to four leaflets in the past year, he has been particularly active on social media.

While many other council candidates run Facebook pages to engage with their prospective constituents and build their profile, Ben takes this one step further and actually pays for Facebook adverts to target people in the Monifieth and Sidlaw area.

“I’m investing about £50 a month on Facebook ads and I’ve actually been surprised at how worthwhile that’s been in terms of people visiting my page and following me,” he said.

“I also ran an online crowdfunding campaign last year which raised £220, which paid for a lot of my leaflets.”

On a more traditional round of doorknocks in Monifieth he was joined by Montrose councillor David May, the Liberal Democrats’ only councillor in the past term who has decided not to stand for re-election.

“I’m 71 and felt it was time to do something else but I think it’s a good idea to have a mix of ages on the council,” said David.

“The response on the doors has been friendlier than I expected. It’s maybe because I live here,” said Ben.

“We came last in this ward in 2012 so there is a lot of work to do but we’ve been delivering leaflets since autumn.

“We really hit the ground early and we’ve been campaigning since.”