Tory Spencer out to hit a high note

Dr Spencer Pitfield has been selected as the party's prospective candidate for the new Penistone and Stocksbridge constituency - the first South Yorkshire seat the party sees as truly winnable since it last held Hallam.

Ever since Sir Irvine Patnick lost the south west Sheffield seat in the 1997 Labour rout, the county has been a parliamentary desert for the Tories. But Penistone and Stocksbridge includes a large rural area, where there are five Conservative councillors, alongside urban areas and Ecclesfield and Dodworth - where people have tended to support Labour and the Liberal Democrats.

The 38-year-old, who stood for the Conservatives against Nick Clegg in Hallam in 2005, said: "The new seat has a very interesting political make-up in terms of constituents and no-one really knows what might or might not happen.

"Although the Lib Dems have councillors in Stocksbridge and Ecclesfield, the constituency is being formed from parts of the Hillsborough and Barnsley West and Penistone seats, which have both been held by Labour in recent years.

"We see it as a straight fight between ourselves and Labour; it's the type of seat which will decide who forms the next government."

Dr Pitfield, who obtained his PHD in clarinet and piano music at Sheffield University, has recently moved to the city from Hertfordshire, where he was deputy leader of Hertsmere District Council.

He is married to a Sheffield woman, Gabrielle Hiller and the couple live in Ringinglow with their six-month-old son.

In Sheffield, he is taking up a post as head of instrumental studies and woodwind at Birkdale independent school, Broomhill.