HISTORICALLY, or at least for the last 20 years or so, life as a Tory councillor in Feltham has been a little lonely, as even the most enthusiastic Conservative will admit, writes Andrew Raine.

Despite MP Patrick Ground flying the blue flag for the Feltham and Heston constituency from 1983-92, the area hadn't had a Tory councillor for around 20 years before a certain Welshman came along at the last local elections and surprised all comers by doubling the Tory vote in the seemingly safe Labour seat of Feltham North.

That was almost two years ago, and now Cllr Mark Bowen has greater ambitions - he has just been voted in as the Feltham and Heston Conservatives' Parliamentary Prospective candidate to take on Labour MP Alan Keen in the next general election, and his message as he digs into his dinner at the Hounslow Conservative club around the corner from the Civic Centre is: "It's winnable."

"I'm not the candidate they (Labour) will have wanted - I've beaten them in their own territory before and I can do it again," he enthuses as he tucks into the competitively priced pie and chips, adding that he believes the Conservatives chose him partly on his public speech that all candidates had to get through, and "partly for the fact that I'm a local, unlike Alan Keen - who lives in Brentford."

His confidence is not without basis - when the election night count revealed that Bowen had received 1,109 votes, putting him ahead of council leader John Chatt, and knocking out a hotly tipped Labour hopeful, the shock in the Labour ranks was audible. Most councillors rate the result as the most surprising of the night - apart from possibly the victory of the ABeeC candidate Luke Kirton, elected solely on his representation of Brentford FC.

How did he do it? No secret, but plain old hard work ("I know it's a clich, but" he admits): "I ploughed the streets and met people and listened to their concerns and only made promises I could keep: I like keeping them in touch - not just at election time." He's kept up the pressure on his Labour competitors too - having tabled more questions at council meetings than any other councillor. He's also delivered half yearly reports to every home in his ward, and is fiercely proud of his attendance record at council meetings.

So what's the battle plan?

"Hounslow Conservatives have continually opposed what have become yearly hikes in council tax since Labour came to power in 1997, arguing that residents in the borough have not seen improvement in services worthy of such inflation-busting increases.

"We have serious concerns about the current proposals to transfer major Accident and Emergency provision from Ashford to St Peter's in Chertsey, and fear this will have a serious impact on people living in Feltham, Bedfont and Hanworth.

"Issues I keep coming across include the state of our roads and pavements and the slow pace of redeveloping Feltham Town Centre.

"The Transport for London junction at Harlington Road West, Harlington Road East, A312 and Hounslow Road is very difficult to cross. TFL promised to implement a scheme last Autumn but didn't have the money, and the council or CiP haven't been successful maintaining our parks.

"The campaign I'm best known for is trying to clean up Feltham Pond - that was an awful mess up on the part of the council and CiP. I signed an application for funding last June/July, but the Labour councillors upset it by saying it would be far better if the council did the work for free - this fell flat on its face, so I'll be renewing my application for funding next year.

"There are also rising concerns about the possibility of Oriel and Crane Park school merging. I won't support something that I believe will compromise education.

"Crime is a priority for me and the record of the Conservatives at backing the police is much better than the Labour party's."

However, the joker in the pack', he believes, is that if he is elected MP he will re-introduce MPs surgeries without appointments.

Born in Gorseinon, West Wales, Mark grew up in Llanellis before going onto study at the University of Greenwich doing an MSc in Computing and Information Systems. He later joined British Airways as an IT graduate, and continues to work for the Information Management division of the company at its Waterside headquarters in Harmondsworth.

He has lived in Feltham for the previous four years along with his wife, Karline, who is from the Cayman Islands.

Perhaps surprisingly for one so staunchly Tory (he has given up drinking in Brentford Conservative Club because there aren't enough tories in there), Mark was a Labour Party member during his teens and early twenties, when he considered himself a Socialist.

"This has helped to make me a committed and loyal Conservative, as I went through a period of challenging my beliefs, a process that still continues.

"The one thing that has always remained constant for me is a search for a better way to live and a desire to help people who seek political representation."