Chas Ball is a transport consultant who founded Britain's first commercial car-sharing club, City Car Club. Before that, he was director of the Leeds-based not-for-profit recycling and waste consultancy SWAP. Locally, he has campaigned on planning, transport and jobs and is secretary of Town First, which opposes large supermarket developments on the edge of town centres. In response to the Kirklees Local Development Framework, he co-ordinated the Green Party's promotion of local food growing and opposition to building more houses on the Green Belt. He is 61, married, and has lived in Beaumont Park, in the constituency, for nearly 10 years.