MORE than 160 people filled the pews at St Stephen’s Church to witness the general election hustings for the Forest of Dean constituency.

Parliamentary candidates Julian Burrett (Ind), James Greenwood (Green), Mark Harper (Con), Shaun Stammers (Lab) and Ernie Warrender (Ukip) tackled questions from the audience on Brexit, school funding, the NHS, terrorism and more.

Reverend Chris Maclay, standing in for Rev Mike Barnsley, thanked and introduced the candidates and explained that the Libdem candidate Janet Ellard could not attend due to a prior engagement.

For the full story on how each candidate responded to the questions read next week’s edition of The Forester out on June 7.