Do you care if your local Council cancels their/your local election in May?

Starmerhas announced he is going to U turn, and the elections will not be cancelled. But, if the boundary changes mean new elections, shortly afterwards, the people who will pay are the taxpayers, whose money would be better spent on the desperately needed areas of social care, end of life care, hospice care, potholes, and so on, rather than indulging in extra elections.

I don’t think there are any good financial arguments for cancelling elections.

Agreed. Like mushrooms. Kept in the dark and fed shit.

Just seen this too. Another u turn. of course elections shouldn't just be cancelled. They'll probably be a disaster for Labour

Apologies, it was both responses I was wanting to discuss.

It is sometimes seen as rubber stamping but it is part of how it works. The Councillors are the bosses and set the priorities - Council staff use their professional knowledge to put their vision into practice as best they can.

Refusing the elections from going ahead means we get stuck with useless counsellors for up to 7 years in some cases. It is not just 1 additional year but 2 in some cases. If Labour lose the next election Reform UK could cancel planned changes anyway.

I respectfully disagree. I actually tuned in to a livestreamed Committee meeting at 7pm because although we assumed the proposal would be approved by Councillors, if they didn't, it would all have to stop and 2 months of work and planning across multiple teams go in the bin.

Thankfully it passed!

Councillors can have a huge impact.

Once the government chooses it's preferred Local Government Reorganisation option, my Council will be full steam ahead in merging with several other local Councils. The issues will be very complex - potentially merging 8 or 9 different teams across 2 different areas.

Running an election would involve over £100K of expenses to elect Councillors who would only sit for a year, then have to be re-elected in a second election a year later to the new body.

It's a perfect political attack for Labour's opponents - if they cancel, they're cancelling democracy. If elections go ahead, it's a stupid and shocking waste of taxpayers money.

Yet, if the proposed reforms are done, every political party afterwards will reap the benefits of simpler, more efficient public services.

The Conservatives never proposed this in their 14 years in office, despite complaining about wasting money.

As a Councillor, I can't think of anywhere we clash except during covid when a lot of emergency provision was passed down to the parish councils because they knew the need on the ground. There was no disagreement, unusual circumstances being met the best way we could.

Agree with you both. They should just go ahead.

I completely disagree, I am sure it varies a lot geographically and even within an authority but I have met so many councillors with huge integrity who genuinely want to serve the public. It actually gets really boring seeing generalized dismissals like yours. I am well aware there are pockets of corruption I am not at all naive about that - it's particularly clear in some parts of the country. But there are also some really good people working really hard and with the best of intentions.

They do often discover of course that what they would like to do and what is achievable are quite different and that can be hard for the public to understand. Because local councillors don't work in a vacuum- there are economic constraints and more importantly they are constrained by national government policy too. So often I will see people cry corruption a planning decision but if they really understood they would realize that the councillors hands were tied by national government policy on the matter .

I wish more people would regularly go and sit and watch council meetings, whether that's full council or a committee meeting. Sometimes the these are recorded now which makes access easier. I think people might be surprised at least in some areas by the robustness of the debate and the clear thought and consideration that is put into decision making by many councillors that I come across. I know I've been lucky not to work in any of the really dodgy local authorities, and I am not going to pretend I haven't encountered councillors who don't do as much as they should in their role, but blanket statements about all councillors being useless are just a display of ignorance to me

I wasn't really thinking about the people running the polling stations.

How would you as a voter know this is happening? They aren't going to advertise it. The contract gets signed whoever gets voted in. That's why I am saying it makes no difference

There certainly is very good work going on that is vital. I work with some amazing and dedicated people. The councillors are irrelevant to this in my experience, which I'm willing to accept (and hoping) isn't universal.