A Cambridge student has been selected by the Cambridge Labour Party to run as one of their candidates in the upcoming city council elections.

George Owers is a 3rd year SPS student at Jesus College and head of the Cambridge University Labour Club. He will run for the position of city councillor for Abbey Ward, an area to the East of town. The ward is a marginal one and the battle for seats between the parties is said to be fierce.

Abbey Ward currently has three councillors – two Labour and one Green. Owers has told Varsity that he is “determined to hold the seat for Labour”. If elected, he plans to work for change in the Cambridge community, promising to “fight to improve people’s lives in real ways, from helping to fix problems with drainage and anti-social behaviour, to the bigger city wide issues”.

However societies in Cambridge that support other political parties have been quick to criticise the decision.  Dom Weldon, chair of the Cambridge Student Liberal Democrats, believes that Owers was selected out of necessity. He says: "I think the party having to select a student, rather than finding a local resident shows just how much the support for Labour in Abbey has died away”.

Nick Hillman is the Conservative Candidate for Cambridge in the 2010 election and a resident of Abbey Ward. He has highlighted his surprise that George is standing in a ward with a relatively low proportion of students saying that “perhaps he knows how unpopular Labour's cuts to universities are among students”.

One of the most contentious subjects in the upcoming City Council elections is the proposed redevelopment of the site of the current private Marshall Airport to make way for new homes. The Labour party oppose the rebuilding of the site, Owers says that the plans will "rob the city of thousands of skilled jobs and cause infrastructural and traffic chaos."

However Dom Weldon points out the need for affordable housing in Cambridge, stating that “building on the airport is the only way to tackle this human crisis in an environmentally friendly way”.

The Conservatives also oppose the move and have highlighted discrepancies between Labour policy and action, as Nick Hillman points out: “the Labour Party claims to be against the development, but it is the Labour Government that is pushing for so many new homes to be built”.

The city council elections will be held on 6 May 2010.