A CONCERNED resident has criticised the design of an election candidate’s leaflet, calling it a “misrepresentation”.

Maldon resident Thomas Kelly, 80, said there was a “deliberate misrepresentation of the facts” after he received a leaflet from Liberal Democrat election hopeful Colin Baldy.

The leaflet for Mr Baldy, who is vying for the Maldon seat on Essex County Council, was titled ‘Cllr Colin Baldy’.

Mr Kelly said he has nothing against the Liberal Democrat candidate, but the leaflet was misleading and neighbours he had spoken to were confused about whether Mr Baldy was a councillor in the first place.

ELECTION LITERATURE: Colin Baldy’s campaign leaflet

ELECTION LITERATURE: Colin Baldy’s campaign leaflet

Mr Kelly said: “Nothing personal against Colin, but I feel whoever let this go through to print has misunderstood or misrepresented by accident or design.

“The public need to be aware that he is not a councillor.

“I’m an ordinary resident. I’ve been here for 50 years and I am passionate about getting stuff improved for Maldon.

“If someone is willing to improve things, particularly on health, they’ll have my support.

“But if I was never involved with local politics and this came through my door, I would say ‘Oh, if he’s already a councillor, he should know all the ins and outs’.”

A spokesman for the Liberal Democrats’ Maldon branch said some people may have misunderstood the campaign leaflet, and the inclusion of the word ‘councillor’ on the leaflet was meant as an aspirational bid to encourage voters to make Mr Baldy a future councillor.

A spokesman said: “Mr Baldy is not, and has never, described himself as a councillor.

“The intention was to exhort people to vote for him to make him councillor Colin Baldy.

“No misrepresentation was intended, and we are sorry if the leaflet has been misinterpreted.

“Maldon residents can be sure that Colin will be a hard-working ambassador for Maldon and is most worthy of their vote.”

  • The full list of candidates for the Maldon division of Essex County Council is: Colin Baldy (Lib Dem), Stephen Capper (Lab), Janet Dine (Green), Jane Fleming (Con), Kevin Lagan (Ind) and Chrisy Morris (Ind).

Here is the full list of candidates in Maldon