A YEAR ago Dave Rowntree was making Sussex a happier place by banging out the tunes with his band live on stage.

The drummer was performing with Blur at Eastbourne’s Winter Gardens but now he is aiming to make people equally happy by fixing their problems as an MP.

“That is why I got into politics,” Dave told The Argus.

“I love knocking on doors and asking people what the issues are that affect them, to ask them ‘what can I do to help?’.

“It is amazing how much people open up to you.”

Dave, 60, is in the running as the Labour parliamentary candidate for Mid Sussex.

He lives in Fulking and said there are three major issues people tell him about on the doorsteps when he is out campaigning.

“The first is potholes. The roads are in such a state that it’s dangerous. Technology has improved so that we can get the roads in the right condition instead of doing this interminable filling of potholes.”

Blur's Dave Rowntree launches Pothole of the Year competition

The second big issue he hears about is housebuilding, with people worried about the number of new builds in Mid Sussex.

“People are increasingly concerned that the promised infrastructure upgrades have not been built,” he said.

The third major issue has been the state

of Burgess Hill town centre.

Dave wants to speak to developers about what is happening to the site of the old Martlets shopping centre.

The Mid Sussex seat has been subject to a boundary change with the previous Conservative MP, Mims Davies, running in the new East Grinstead and Uckfield Constituency.

In Mid Sussex Dave is up against Conservative Kristy Lyn Adams, Alison Bennett of the Liberal Democrats, Gary Johnson from Reform UK, the Green Party’s Deanna Nicholson and Baron Von Thunderclap from the Official Monster Raving Loony Party.