A fuel poverty campaigner is one of the first new candidates to announce she is standing for election to Falkirk Council in May.
Claire Brown - who is also known by her maiden name, Claire Mackie - has been selected as the Conservative candidate for the Upper Braes area of Falkirk.
After setting up and leading the Falkirk's Forgotten Villages Campaign - which successfully persuaded Falkirk Council to agree to install new heating in thousands of homes - Mrs Brown says she now aims to do more for the rural communities she hopes to represent.
However, becoming a politician was never an ambition, she says - until a spur-of-the-moment Facebook post changed everything.
Mrs Brown, 41, who was born and grew up in Slamannan, had moved away from the area for a number of years.
However, when she moved back it was to a privately rented house, with the Thermaflow heating system.
And when her energy costs jumped suddenly from £35 to £80 a week - following a price increase by Scottish Power - while her house was never properly warm, she took to social media to ask if anyone else was facing similar issues.
"It had a snowball effect - we suddenly realised there were a thousand homes affected and that's where the campaign started," she said.
Mrs Brown's experience as a marketing manager stood her in good stead as she organised high-profile meetings with the CEO of Scottish Power and the head of Falkirk Council's housing department.
Realising the scale of the poverty that was evident also led her to help open the Community Pavilion, to help those who had nothing.
Her work was acknowledged by Conservative MSP, Stephen Kerr, who invited Mrs Brown to the opening of the Scottish Parliament, where she met Her Majesty the Queen.
That led to her being asked by the Conservatives if she would consider becoming a councillor as part of their group.
"It's a great honour to have the opportunity to be more involved in making decisions that can really make a difference to people's lives and having a real role in future investment and re-development," she said.
"Being from Slamannan, I have first-hand knowledge of how these communities have been forgotten."
And she believes her campaigning shows that she is someone who isn't afraid to challenge the failings of the local authority.
Other priorities include road safety and speeding, the condition of the roads in winter and the fact that buses have been cancelled without any consultation, leaving many villagers unable to get to work or hospital appointments.
"I want to bring the villages to the forefront and say 'we might be rural but we need transport, we need accessibility and we need essential services'," she said.
"My message is that these villages shouldn't be forgotten - they have a lot of heart and a real sense of community," she said.
While the political campaigning is underway, Mrs Brown will step back from her role in Falkirk's Forgotten Villages until after the elections in May as she is not permitted to be part of any active campaigns.
The list of candidates for the election has not yet been finalised but there will be at least one change as the Labour candidate this time is Siobhan Paterson, who will replace current councillor John McLuckie.
