Former catwalk model Nikki Page is so fed up with London's creaking transport system - she has decided that the only way to sort it out is by becoming the capital's mayor.

Mrs Page has put her name forward to be the Tory candidate for the top job, a role much coveted by former minister Steve Norris who failed in his challenge two years ago.

I would really like to see a carriage on the tube that is dedicated to women at night

Nikki Page

She is already well-versed in politics, as a press aide to former Welsh Secretary John Redwood, who with Tory MP Julie Kirkbride, is supporting her bid to be mayor.

But it is London's "transport gridlock" that has driven the former Westminster councillor to throw her hat back into the electoral ring.

"I'm just so mad at the state of London - I want to be proud of my city again," she told BBC News Online.

"The city is dirty and traffic is grid-locked. You can't go out on your own in the West End in the evening if you are a woman.

"I'm a proud owner of a zone two tube pass, but you spend most of your time waiting at stations for the train to turn up.

"London used to be the greatest place in the world to live - now we are over taxed and over-wrought.

"You can't take your car into town because there is nowhere to park it and taxi fares are expensive.

"If you are a woman, you can't come home on the tube because you don't feel safe - that's if they are still running late at night."

'Scrap congestion charging'

Along with transport, top of Mrs Page's agenda is to make women in the capital feel safe, she says.

"I would really like to see a carriage on the tube that is dedicated to women at night times so people would know there is one place they could go and feel relatively safe."

Women need to feel safe in London, says Nikki Page

She would also like to scrap the congestion charge, cut the numbers of speed humps, issue traffic wardens with hand-held exhaust testing meters and give them powers to fine drivers of cars that pump out fumes.

Mrs Page, who moved to London from the Midlands at the age of 17 to further her modelling career, spent the end of the 1960s on the catwalk for leading designers.

She made occasional television appearances on Sale of the Century and BBC's Nationwide.

Animal mad

"It was a fun time. I enjoyed modelling very much. It was a great time to live in London and I'd like it to be again."

Living in Fulham with husband Al, Mrs Page is passionate about animals, helping the Celia Hammond Animal Trust to find homes for abandoned pets with politicians and journalists.

Nicky Gavron is Labour's choice for London mayor

She used to be chairman of DreamArts youth charity and is a volunteer helper at the Royal Marsden cancer hospital.

Nominations for Tory candidates closes on 29 November.

If Mrs Page is successful, she will come up against Labour's candidate Nicky Gavron, who has been selected to challenge Ken Livingstone for the London mayoralty in 2004.

Ms Gavron, the current Deputy Mayor of London, beat her closest rival, Tony Banks MP, by a majority of 7%.

In the first London mayoral elections in 2000, Mr Livingstone failed to become the Labour candidate despite winning the support of most London party members.

He subsequently left the party to run as an independent. The official party candidate, Frank Dobson, managed only third place after Steve Norris.