A PUBLIC meeting to help voters in the York Central constituency get to know their prospective MPs has been praised, not just for its content, but for its location.

The hustings was held in the Volunteer Arms pub, in Watson Street off Holgate Road, last Wednesday, and saw up to 150 people hear what five local candidates had to say.

Speaking at the event – hosted by local quizmaster Tom Adams - were Jonathan Tyler (Green), Robert McIlveen (Conservative), Ken Guest (Ukip), Nick Love (Liberal Democrats), and Rachel Maskell (Labour). Each candidate was given time to talk about their policies and take questions from the crowd.

It was this side of local politics that seemed to work best, in the eyes of local voters who attended.

Colin Gibson, 28, of Bishopthorpe Road, said: “Personally, I follow politics quite a lot but didn’t know the local candidates well so this is a good chance to get to know who they are and what they are about. It makes me a lot more likely to turn up to an event like this, as I like the relaxed atmosphere of the pub.

“I think the levels of applause in the room for the candidates seemed to go down quite well. I’m not surprised how busy the meeting was. Because it’s in the pub, it makes sense more people took an interest, but it’s an unusual event. It would be nice if a few more young people were there, but it seems to have gone well.”

Stephen Clark lives near the Volunteer Arms, and had been to another recent hustings.

He said: “In my opinion, the Priory Street hustings was kind of a bit dull, and a bit clinical, and there was no real bite to it. I think the fact this one was in a pub definitely helped with that.

“You see what’s on television, all these staged events – it doesn’t matter which party, they have their supporters behind them and it’s all so tame. It needs to be brought to life a bit more and I think this sort of thing has more opportunity to do that, rather than something that’s in a more formal setting really.”

Paul Crossman, co-owner of the pub, said: “I think by the end of it the feeling in the room and certainly my feeling was we all got to know the candidates, which it the important thing, given they will be in power and this hopefully made them more approachable.

“The panel loved it, and said they’d been to a lot of hustings where it may have been stuffy or not well attended, and said ours was a far more in-depth event really. We would definitely do it again and I think, based on the reaction we got, people would definitely like to see more meetings in this kind of informal setting.”