FOUR Stratton St Margaret residents have joined the parish council.

Councillors picked the winning candidates after a round of seven quick-fire auditions to fill the vacancies on the area's local authority.

Each citizen put forward persuasive presentations to make the case for why they deserved a spot among the team that

Sarah Sharp, Ravi Venkatesh, Laura Butcher and Pratap Mane will be co-opted onto the council and join different committees.

Councillors cast their votes for their favourite applicants after hearing persuasive presentations from each citizen.

Nythe Primary School governor Pratap used to be on the parish council and hoped to return to work on the finance and planning committees.

Sarah has cared for her mother since leaving her youth worker role.

Ravi works at Haydon Wick Parish Council but will adapt his schedule to fit any Stratton duties.

Laura moved to Stratton 10 years ago and joined a youth work charity before going into HR and now works for the fire service.