Rachel Pattinson‑West, a charity worker, mother of two and cancer survivor, has been selected as the Green Party candidate for Andover South in the Hampshire County Council elections on Thursday 7 May 2026.
Pattinson‑West brings six years of experience as a councillor in Bournemouth, Christchurch and Poole, where she championed heathland protection, opposed inappropriate development and worked to support vulnerable residents.
Now living right here in Test Valley, she says local politics needs to focus on the everyday problems residents see around them. She is campaigning to protect the River Anton, one of only 200 chalk streams on Earth, from pollution linked to discharges from the overloaded Fullerton sewage treatment works.
She is also calling for action on the town’s pothole‑ridden roads, after Hampshire County Council cut pothole repairs by 59 per cent, with routes including the A343, Weyhill Road and Western Avenue among those causing concern locally. The party also highlights the scrapping of the Andover-Newbury bus services (route 7 and 7A) last August, which has left vulnerable residents at Enham Alamein without a regular service.
Rachel Pattinson‑West said: “I am not your usual politician. You will see me watching my kids play football and walking my dogs by the river. Life can be crappy and complicated, but politics should not make it worse. I want to fight to make it better.”
She is one of three Green candidates standing across Andover, alongside Tom Waddington in Andover North and Alan Wright in Andover West, as part of Test Valley Green Party’s first full slate of county council candidates across all seven divisions.
Tom Waddington, Green Party candidate for Andover North, said: “I’ve lived in Andover since 2018. I can see the local issues in the area and am passionate about bringing real change and to support actual working class families.”
The Hampshire County Council elections take place on Thursday 7 May 2026. Candidate profiles and further information are available at https://testvalley.greenparty.org.uk/