The Beacon has questioned each party on the key issues facing the county.

Their responses will be featured here over the coming weeks.

This week, we hear from UKIP candidate Gareth Dunn, and Green Party candidate Chris Were.

We asked each party:

1. Where do you live? If you live locally, how long have you been here?

2. What experience do you have in politics?

3. Why are you standing for the Monmouthshire seat?

4. What do you think is the greatest issue facing your prospective constituents, and how would you tackle this?

Key issues:

5. What steps would you take to address problems experienced locally with cross-border healthcare and ambulance response times?

6. What steps would you take to combat crime and

specifically, recent increases in burglaries across the county?

7. How do you plan to work effectively with residents of varying ages?

8. How do you intend to support the agricultural community?

9. How will you support small, independent, local businesses?

Gareth Dunn

I LIVE in Monmouth with my wife Nina and three children and have done since 2004.

Prior to that I lived in Edinburgh, although at that time my work as a geophysicist kept me abroad for much of the year in places like Nigeria, Gabon, Brazil and Norway.

I voted UKIP almost as soon as it was formed because I thought that for the sake of balance there needed to be at least one voice in British politics speaking out against our relentless loss of sovereignty to the EU and the rise of an undemocratic federal government in Brussels.

I was first asked to stand in Scotland in 2003 and again in Torfaen in 2010. I am standing in Monmouth this time because UKIP needs a voice in every constituency if it is to stand a chance of influencing the national debate in the future.

We have a perennially underfunded NHS, a growing gap between rich and poor, food banks and a bedroom tax levied against the poorest in society, all against a backdrop of ever growing EU contributions, tax dodging corporations and a foreign aid budget six times larger than the combined budgets of Italy and Spain.

But the greatest issue facing everyone today is our eye watering £1.5 trillion national debt, which is one of the biggest in peacetime history. This financial millstone costs us over £40 billion per year in interest payments alone. That money is earned and then burned, but our public services need it desperately so clearing the debt should be a major priority for any government formed after May 7th.

The NHS is devolved in Wales but a UKIP government would immediately inject an extra £3 billion nationally every year and ensure that the money went to front line care. It would also fund 8000 more GPs and 20,000 more nurses across the UK. Medical students would also have their university fees waived to encourage more people to enter the profession. It won't fix everything but it's an excellent start.

Farmers will also benefit from a UKIP government. EU farm subsidies are simply our own money handed back to us. UKIP will cut out the middleman and introduce a UK Single Farm Payment of £80 per acre for lowland farms with organic farms getting a 25 per cent premium on top. Hill farmers will receive additional headage payments within WTO rules. Electronic Individual Identification Documents for sheep will be scrapped and replaced with something more pragmatic to reduce costs for farmers. Excessive and unnecessary EU regulations will be scrapped and replaced with more appropriate national or local controls.

Finally, small businesses will qualify for a variety of rate reliefs depending on their size. Late payments by large companies to smaller ones will also be addressed. About £20 billion is locked up at any one time by these late payments and UKIP will introduce new fines to deter this practice.