A FORMER advertising executive and senior figure within the Value Jersey political movement has announced her intention to stand in the forthcoming election.
Samantha Gleave, who served as Value Jersey’s director of communications but has now stepped away from the organisation’s senior leadership team, is to seek election for one of three Deputy positions in the St Helier South district.
Although Mrs Gleave lives in Grouville, she said she had spent half of her childhood in St Helier, came to town almost every day for work and felt she could make a difference in one of the three districts making up the Island’s capital.
She said: “There are some very good candidates for Grouville and St Martin, and I think it’s important to have some credible independent candidates in St Helier – Reform Jersey are very strong in town and I want to offer an alternative option.
“Lots of businesses, and residents, in St Helier are being squeezed and I think I can help them.”
Mrs Gleave said she had been involved with Value Jersey from the time the political movement had been launched last year, and had not originally intended to stand for election.
“We didn’t feel that party politics was the way forward for Jersey, but wanted to provide support and a sense of community for independent candidates without a party structure in which Members are told how to vote,” she said.
“I decided to put myself forward within the past month after a lot of people, not just former colleagues from Value Jersey, asked me to stand.
“I have a lot of experience in helping businesses solve some quite complex problems and I feel that, if elected, I will be able to do the same in the Assembly.”
In addition to her professional background, Mrs Gleave co-founded Jersey Youth Performing Arts and was part of the oversight group for the recent development of the Island’s dementia strategy.
