Eastleigh'S Liberal Democrats should have the person they hope will take over from David Chidgey as the constituency's next MP in place by the end of June.

Last October Mr Chidgey, 60, announced that he would be stepping down from the parliamentary seat he has held since 1994 at the next general election.

Stressing that it would be business as usual until then, the Eastleigh MP said that after nearly 30 years in politics he had decided it was time to make way for younger men and women, bringing new talents and fresh ideas to Parliament.

Now the local Lib Dems are searching for the man or woman who will become their prospective parliamentary candidate and try to follow in Mr Chidgey's footsteps.

The local party has advertised the vacancy in the Lib Dem News - a national publication - with a closing date for applications of April 4.

Eastleigh Lib Dem chairman Councillor Pam Holden-Brown told the Daily Echo: "We are expecting some quality people to apply - but how many I don't know.

"The person we choose will have a hard act to follow. We shall be very sorry to lose David at the next general election. What we want is a good person to follow him and that is what we are working towards."

Cllr Holden-Brown said: "A selection panel will be checking all the applications against the criteria which we have worked out for what we think is important for the prospective parliamentary candidate for Eastleigh."

After that a "long list" would be drawn up and interviews conducted over a long weekend.

From there, a shortlist of candidates would be compiled and those on it would then be encouraged to go out, talk and make themselves known to local party members.

"Then we shall have a hustings when the membership will be invited and at the end of the hustings we shall have a prospective parliamentary candidate, said Cllr Holden-Brown.

She said each local party member would have a vote and the party would encourage as many people as possible to attend hustings.