THE seat vacated by a veteran councillor's retirement is to be contested by one of the youngest people to stand for election.

Darcie Shepherd will be carrying the flag for Labour in the by-election for the Longbeck Ward of Redcar and Cleveland Council which has been called following the resignation of an Independent Councillor Mike Findley.

Launching her campaign, she said: "I'm standing on Labour's core values of fairness, equality and social justice. The area I'm fighting has its fair share of people unemployed, on low pay and having to bear the burdens of Tory Austerity. Labour's slogan is 'for the many, not the few' and it is for the many in both Marske and New Marske that I'll be battling."

The election, scheduled for March 15, will see the 18-year-old campaigning in Marske and New Marske for votes.

Councillor David Walsh, secretary of the council's Labour group, said: "Darcie, at 18, is probably one of the youngest ever candidates in the UK to stand for an upper tier all-purpose local authority."

The Prior Pursglove Sixth Form College student, where she is studying for her A levels, was a key organiser o the "Save our NHS" rally outside Middlesbrough's James Cook University Hospital a fortnight ago.