Local government elections on 4 May

[T_i_B]

I thought I might as well post this here and ask if anyone has local government elections coming up soon and, if so, what are the big issues round your neck of the woods?

Personally, I've just moved to a different town very recently and as a result I have not been able to get on the electoral register in time. :-( Mind you, there aren't any local elections due in Chelmsford (where I was before) this year and to tell you the truth I'm not too keen on any of the main parties anyway so I suppose it's no great loss.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk_politics/4853862.stm

Local elections are being held on Thursday 4 May with 4,360 council seats up for grabs across England. Voters are having their say in all 32 London boroughs and 144 other local authorities across the country.

Some 36 Metropolitan authorities and 20 Unitary authorities will elect a third of their council. Eighty-eight districts will also have polls, most electing a third of their council. Hackney, Watford, Newham and Lewisham will hold mayoral elections.

There is also a referendum taking place in Crewe on whether the people want an elected mayor.

[muriel_volestrangler]

1. We're electing 16 of 44 councillors

No big issues - but there was one in 2002, when the Tory who's now standing down was elected. Then, the Lib Dems had given planning permission for a new Waitrose supermarket, and this produced a backlash which got the Tory elected in what was previously a Lib Dem seat. The 2004 ward election was won by a Lib Dem, so I suspect we could win the seat back this year. The Lib Dems dominate the council already (32 out of 44), so I doubt that will change - they managed a lower than inflation council tax rise, so the 2nd place Tories can't do too much with that.

[Cessna Invesco Palin]

2. Same as always in Cambridge.

Development (too much), affordable housing (not enough) and traffic (too much).

Also, an exciting war of words over the recycling programme. No significant changes expected. Lib Dems own the city council.

[TheBaldyMan]

3. At last I can vote again, I have a Green candidate :D

Now if I can find out if I'm back on the electoral register, I've probably been dropped off it again same as the last 3 elections.

[Anarcho-Socialist]

11. Wow you're lucky. I'd love to have the choice to vote Green n/t

[TheBaldyMan]

21. There are about 22 standing in the Wirral, nearly every seat is contested

hopefully there will be more than a few Greens in the council.

[fedsron2us]

4. Tories, Liberal Democrats and Greens

are the only candidates in my ward. It is a sad comment on the state of the current Labour party that they do not have anyone standing in an area that contains quite a number of working class voters.

Believe it or not the big issue according to all the leaflets is whether the council should dig up all the old Second World war beach defences. These were buried along the seafront by the MOD in 1945 but have now been exposed by erosion and become a health hazard.

[T_i_B]

19. Wasn't that the same issue as at last year's elections?

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=191x3081#3240

[fedsron2us]

23. Amazingly the controversy is still rumbling on

The local council have recently commissioned a report from Statoscan the company who provide the geophysicists on the Channel 4 program Time Team. They have revealed the presence of toxic metals in the defences. This means that they can not simply be dug out and crushed into aggregate as was originally intended. In fact the presence of toxins means the cost of removal is likely to be prohibitive. The beach is technically a parish matter but the scale of the problem means it has been elevated to an issue in the local council elections. To be fair to the local Conservative council I think that they are trying to resolve the problem as best they can. However, the opposition Liberal Democrats have seized on the issue as a way to win votes amongst worried residents. A lot of their literature on the matter seems pretty fraudulent but I may be a bit biased as I find the local bunch of Lib Dems a pretty unpleasant crowd. The real villains of the piece are not surprisingly central government in the form of the MOD who adamantly refuse to take responsibility for the junk they have left behind. No one seems very keen on my idea of sticking the crap on the back of a lorry and dumping it at the entrance of Downing Street.

[tjwmason]

5. We've got a local government by-election tomorrow - that's all.

Due to the death of our former councillor (both District and County).

Totally a foregone conclusion - this being south Bucks - but interestingly both parties (which round here means Tory and LibDem) have actually campaigned, I suppose because there's no other elections to be used.

[Greeby]

6. One third up for re-election in this Lib Dem-controlled council

The Lib Dem candidate in this ward used to be the Treasurer for the local Scout troop back when I was in it. I don't remember him, but my mum tells me he had an extreme BO problem.

I've also seen posters up for a muslim Tory candidate. I've always thought a muslim who supports Tories is like an african-american who supports Republicans :crazy:

[Anarcho-Socialist]

7. In UK politics...

...the Tory Party is the natural home for someone who believes in subservience to the "Free Market". I know the Blairites love the free market too, but the idea is even more entrenched into the Tories.

When people from marginalised groups court the right (women, ethnic minorities, religious minorities, working classes, disabled) it is usually because they have swallowed the idea that the free market will solve the whole world's problems, and the inequalities in society are secondary to the progression of the free market idea. The (relatively) moderates of neoliberalism harbour hopes that the free market could address inequalities and give social justice all on its own. We all know that the idea of neoliberal economics providing social justice is rubbish, but I think the belief in it is a way for free market proponents to hold on to some ethical concepts, whether to mask feelings of greed, fear or an actual misguided positivist belief.

[non sociopath skin]

8. Nothing here in Northumberland ...

... so no chance of commenting on our reasonable District Council (old-ish Labour) or our ghastly County Council (Blairite Labour), whose biggest problem appears to be that they're running out of things to close, reduce and/or privatise.

The one to watch hereabouts is Newcastle City Council which went Lib-Dem last time after 30 years in Labour hands. To be frank, there's not much to choose between them - neither manifesto shows much imagination. It will be interesting to see whether the Tories get a foothold - there's talk of them taking at least one seat from the Lib-Dems in one of the well-heeled suburbs.

The Skin

[Anarcho-Socialist]

10. Nothing going on in Sedgefield district, Co. Durham either

Our Town council is independent-run, they're doing a reasonable job and they'll probably be returned in the next local elections whenever they are. Our district is Labour-run but they don't seem to know how to manage finances properly and so working people are being pressured by further increases in council tax, but Labour would likely be returned again. Durham county council is Labour controlled and they have high approval ratings and would also be likely returned.

I think we had county elections last year, and town/district elections in 2003 or 2004.

[TheBaldyMan]

12. Blimey, Tony Blair's your MP ! - you poor sod.

you not the Bliar I mean.

[tjwmason]

13. That one could have gone either way.

;)

[Anarcho-Socialist]

16. Blair is certainly a sod, to put it mildly n/t

[Anarcho-Socialist]

15. Not quite

I'm in the Sedgefield council district, but not in the Sedgefield Parliamentary constituency. My local constituency is Bishop Auckland (Helen Goodman - Labour), but the town of Bishop Auckland itself is in Weardale district council, whereas my town of Shildon (despite being in Bishop Auckland constituency) is in Sedgefield council :crazy:.

I wish I had got the chance to not vote for Blair in 2005, I'd likely have voted for Reg Keys.

[Greeby]

14. If you live in the Sedgefield constituency, perhaps you can answer this q

Those 24,000 people who directly decided to reelect President Tony, whats wrong with them? :shrug:

[Anarcho-Socialist]

17. I actually don't - see #15

Since the Sedgefield constituency is just up the road I will try to theorise. In Co. Durham there is a tribal loyalty towards Labour here. The Lib Dems share of the vote is growing but they are still met with suspicion here as people don't seem to know what they stand for. The Tories are as ever met with intense hostility. The only other party that stands on a regular basis is UKIP who are just seen in a similar light as the Tories.

The main tactic that Labour used during 2005 here was to mobilise Labour voters under the pretense that staying at home would "let the Tories in" which was one of the factors that kept Blair in office. Other factors included the sheer number of candidates standing against Blair split all the dissenting vote (there were something like 14 candidates). Also I think there is the "star factor" of the Prime Minister being from your constituency that could have been another reason for him being returned.

[non sociopath skin]

22. Sounds about right, AS.

Unfortunately, the main means of "protesting" against Blairism/ NuLab-ism in the North-East is by voting for the Lib Dems which usually means opting for NuLab policies delivered by someone else.

With Cameron seemingly going down the road of community-friendly eco-conservatism, we face the unedifying prospect of three parties vying with each other to run local authorities in much the same (and not very inspiring) way.

Then they wonder why nobody bothers to vote ...

The Skin

[D-Notice]

9. Unfortunately,

I won't be able to vote this time, due to moving house!

By the time I've moved it'll be too late to register in the new area & I don't trust having a postal vote in my current area.

[T_i_B]

20. Another person in the same boat as me!

Good luck with the move!

[D-Notice]

24. Thanks!

[T_i_B]

25. That's OK

Where are you moving to BTW?

I'm now in Colchester, and even though the Tories run the local council (and are expected by some to increase their majority) they have not bothered to stand in my ward! :wow: We have a choice of Labour, Lib Dem and Green instead. The only people who have bothered to leaflet me so far are the Lib Dems, whom I would expect to retain the seat.

[LeftishBrit]

18. Oxford City Council has elections every year

It's no-overall-control, almost equally divided between Labour and Lib Dem, with 3 'Independent Working Class', and 6 Greens out of 48: one of the best Green representations in the country, mainly thanks to the late and sadly-missed Mike Woodin.

The Council as a whole is not bad ideologically, but not terribly competent. Our major local issues are the same as mentioned by others: traffic, lack of affordable housing, developments in what many consider the wrong places. My own two councillors are Lib Dems and not too bad, though I haven't had to deal with them often.

Oxfordshire County Council, on the other hand, is currently bad ideologically (Tory-controlled) and always notoriously incompetent: endless delays; confusion about finances; at one point they thought they were short of a large amount of money, and made numerous cuts as a result - and then they found the money, which they had somehow mislaid! They are more concerned with traffic regulation than the City Council and have done a pretty disastrous job of it. They are not up as a body for election this year, however. There are a few by-elections but not in my area.

[Taxloss]

26. My Conservative-dominated council will become even more Tory-dominated.

Warwick, my ward, will return Nicky Aitken, a product of horrible insiderism, nepotism and borderline corruption. (She's even been in Private Eye.)

So far I have received four - count 'em, four - election pamphlets from the Conservatives, and not one from any other party.

This is technically a one-party council, so there aren't "issues" as such. But the Tories have the following agenda:

1. Maintain the lowest council tax in Britain.
2. Improve street cleanliness.
3. Further tighten the screws on Westminster's nightlife.

[LeftishBrit]

27. Are you in Westminster then?

I remember all that scandal about Shirley Porter! It sounds as though it hasn't deterred the voters from voting Tory.

[Taxloss]

29. Yes, Westminster. And the blue buggers held it firm.

No wards changed hands, and Tory councillors still outnumber Labour four to one. Nary a Lib Dem in sight.

Mrs Taxloss's parents were caught up in that scandal - they were one of the families moved. A very good book has just come out about it all - "Nothing Like A Dame", by Andrew Hosken. I strongly recommend it. The story is breathtaking.

[T_i_B]

28. Today's the day!

:kick: