Two candidates standing in the local elections in Swindon want to fight with voters - but they don’t want to fight against them.

The two Trade Union & Socialist Coalition candidates - Scott Hunter who is standing in Covingham & Dorcan and Rob Pettefar who wants to win the seat in Lydiard & Freshbrook - say they are looking for voters who want to join with them in what they say is the fight against austerity and low wages, and poor services for working people.

They are the only two TUSC candidates standing in Swindon, but the coalition of leftist parties and trade unions have around two hundred standing in the upcoming elections across the country.

The Swindon pair realise that even if they win, their powers would be more symbolic than anything else.

Mr Hunter, 31, a maths teacher at New College who was born and brought up in Swindon said: “There will only be two of us as backbench councillors if we are elected. We’re under no illusions.

“But we want to find people who want to join us in the fight against austerity, who want to fight with us for a better deal for the working class in this country.

“We are up for a fight and want to build a coalition with people from unions and community groups who want to oppose more austerity and start undoing the effects of the last 13 years.”

Mr Pettefar, a 36-year-old software engineer who also grew up in Swindon, said: “The council sent out its council tax leaflet recently after putting up council tax by five per cent.

"[I] did a bit of digging and it says on its website it has a 29 per cent cut in its spending power from 10 years ago, it’s had to cut £44.5 million from its budget.

“We think we should be fighting to get central government to restore that funding and not putting the burden on working people in Swindon to plug that gap.”

Asked about more bread-and-butter policies, Mr Pettefar said: “I think the council should be increasing the library services, not cutting them back. It’s harder and harder to do anything now without a computer or internet access, and libraries are important resources for people who don’t have those at home.

“I think it should also be doing more about the town centre. Developers and landlords are letting shops empty, they aren’t renewing leases so shops can be replaced by investment properties.

"The council should look at taking things back into public hands.”

Mr Pettefar also said he thinks the money spent on social care could go further if the services were brought back in-house: “There’s about an 11 per cent profit for private care companies on the services they provide which the council pays for. That’s millions of pounds. If it was done in-house without a huge private profit, you could cut the costs and use the money for other services.”

Mr Hunter added: “We know we wouldn’t have much power, but we’d be arguing for a needs-based budget to be set. One that meets the needs of the town and isn’t just the austerity agenda, the low wage agenda set by all the other parties.”

Also standing in Covingham & Dorcan are Dale Heenan (Conservative Party), Howard John March (Green Party), Tate Pullen (Labour) and Malcolm Salmon (Liberal Democrat).

In Lydiard & Freshbrook, the other candidates are Repi Begum (Labour), Bilal Quidwai (Liberal Democrat) and Caryl Sydney-Smith (Conservative Party).