Melanie Petrowski's run for Hastings District Council started with a bang. Literally.
Petrowski, who is running in the Flaxmere Ward, said in July 2018, a car crashed into her house and took out two large gas bottles.
"If my flatmate's car didn't take most of the impact and if I hadn't turned off the gas 20 minutes beforehand, there could've been three dead bodies in the middle of my lounge or five people dead (or more) if my house had blown up."
She said she had been able to see the incident coming for years.
"I grew up in Flaxmere, went away in 1994 and returned in 2015 to live and study. I noticed the streets had become unsafe.