Who is Margaret Pinder? Labour's Hull and East Yorkshire mayor candidate pledges free summer coastal bus travel
The Labour Party’s candidate for Thursday’s Hull and East Yorkshire Mayoral election is Margaret Pinder.
Ms Pinder stood in last summer’s General Election in Graham Stuart’s Beverley and Holderness constituency and came just 124 votes behind the Conservative Party’s Mr Stuart.
She grew up on the Hessle Road, before studying at Cambridge and Harvard - and in her spare time is a double-bass player with the Hull Philharmonic Orchestra.
Ms Pinder’s two key policies are free bus travel to the coast in summer months, to revive the great British seaside holiday, and to fill every pothole in the combined authority.
She told The Yorkshire Post she could not “get over the fact that there are kids in Hull who have never seen the sea”.
“When I was growing up that was unthinkable,” she added.
Ms Pinder has pledged that in July and August any bus going to the coast will be free for anyone, regardless of age.
She said this would give greater support to coastal communities, which suffered during Covid.
“It’s a boost for tourism and a boost for local businesses,” she explained.
On the new mayoral role: “The new devolved authority offers a tremendous opportunity for our rural, coastal and urban communities which have all too often been overlooked and left behind.
“I was born in Hull and live in the East Riding, and I know that our people are our greatest resource.”