Local elections on Thursday 2 May
It's that time of year when local elections are due. This year we have local elections in many areas of the country.
As always, please feel free to tell us about what local elections are due in your local area, who is standing in your area, which party controls your local council and what are the big issues affecting local politics in your area.
https://www.yourvotematters.co.uk/
I moved inside Sheffield's boundaries last year, so I have elections for Sheffield City council due this year, as well as parish council elections. Labour have a large majority on Sheffield council, but there are also a fair few Liberal Democrats and Greens. No Tories on Sheffield council, which is no bad thing if you ask me. 
The big local issues are the local plan, which the council appear to be sitting on until after the election and the ongoing issues with the PFI contract with Amey Plc for road maintenance, which has been very controversial due to cost and also Amey's fondness for tree felling in spite of many objections from residents of the affected areas.
In the ward where I live the Labour councilor who was up for re-election has quit Labour. He is the husband of the local MP Angela Smith, who has recently defected to The Independent Group. After being initially selected as the Labour candidate without a fuss there then followed attempts to unselect him on a technicality, on account of his being in possession of an offensive wife.
https://www.thestar.co.uk/our-towns-and-cities/sheffield/sheffield-councillor-quits-labour-days-after-mp-wife-defects-1-9622320
I haven't had a single leaflet from Labour since I moved, possibly because they are so focused on internal shenanigans. I have had a couple from the Liberal Democrats though.
As far as the parish council elections go, the main issue there is the presence of a small group of "independent" parish councillors who are essentially a front for the far right. They make a lot of noise at meetings but don't get anything done. Their platform is about as bad as it's possible to get at parish council elections.
Interestingly I did meet a few parish councillors a few weeks ago and raised an issue relating to a street near me. Their response was that they hadn't had any complaints about this matter for a number of years. The moral of the story is that you need to make complaints if you want to get things done!
So, what's happening in your local area?
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Last edited Tue Apr 9, 2019, 01:46 AM - Edit history (1)
I do get local elections on a more regular basis.
Another ugly issue that has raised it's head however, is that the National Front are standing in the ward where I live. 
With Lib Dem's, Tories, Green's, a "Yorkshire" party for people who think that UKIP aren't parochial enough and the incumbent councillor standing as an independent after falling out with Labour in addition to the Nazi's I expect Labour to get in on account of the anti-Labour vote being split in many directions in the ward where I live.