To wonder why turnout for local elections is always so low?

[ScreamingValenta]

I was looking at the turnout for my area in yesterday's elections and it was very low - like most other areas which have declared. It doesn't seem unusual for the majority not to vote.

I always vote, although I admit sometimes struggle to find a reason to vote for one candidate over the others.

I'm not criticising anyone's choice, but I'm curious to know why people apparently don't want to vote - is this down to disillusionment with the parties/candidates, apathy, or other reasons? Does anyone have any thoughts? If you didn't turn out yesterday, why was this?

We only had one leaflet and it said nothing about the changes that he wanted to make or about his views. Plus he was wearing a hoodie in the photo and it looked totally unprofessional. That was for the party I normally vote for - so no vote from me!

“If people started holding their local councils to account we may start getting better representation, unfortunately even at local level the "could never vote tory/labour" mindset sets in”

@justanotherlurker I think this is a great post and very much agree though. Where I’m stuck though, is HOW do we hold councils accountable? In practical terms I have no idea what to do (And let’s be realistic I work full time with children, I’m not going to stand myself) and I bet I’m not the only one

Every time the council don't meet expectations, I challenge them. Gritting, litter, crossings, road surfacing, whatever. They were going to cut a beautiful cherry tree down in our road, but we stopped them. The local Councillor came round to my house and talked to me about the issues. She said she was glad people got involved!

I voted, but tbh if it wasn’t for the fact ds was off school as his was a polling station I would have probably forgotten because there was sweet fa canvassing in this area.

As it happens we are in a safe seat (and and individual I have a lot of respect for) so my vote would have made little difference but I know of some seats which swung on 20 votes so apathy could have made a big difference

I email the council everytime they do something that affects me but I’m not really sure that envokes change. Plus it’s a logistical nightmare with some services coming under town, some under borough and some under county. I’ve had dealings with them through work professionally and can see how utterly useless most of their workforce are but how can you complain about that?

Turnout at council elections in my area is normally about 30%, unless it coincides with the general election in which case it might be a bit higher.

However, I think people are often more engaged with local issues than they are with national ones, or at least feel they have more of a chance of influencing them, and I've known people vote for parties they don't normally support because they think the candidate does good work in the community. There are active Facebook pages for the local area in which people discuss their concerns - proposed local housing developments, roadworks, dog fouling, litter and the like - as well as the Nextdoor social network for local areas. We didn't have elections this year, but I think our local elected councillors are trying to engage, as they put a leaflet through our door recently describing what they have been doing.

Watching the recent programme on new builds in the countryside, it showed the councillors voting to approve a new development in the green belt, much to the opposition of local residents - so despite the apathy, the results of local elections can have a big impact on people's lives.

It strikes me that a lot of people on this thread (including me) never got a polling card this time.

Do they just not send them for certain elections? I've always received one before.

@Tawdrylocalbrouhaha It might have been that your area didn't have one - there are a couple of link above where you can check.

No, we definitely had one - I voted no problem without a polling card. It's just that normally the card is what prompts me to vote, so I'm wondering what became of it!

I always vote as I think it’s so important.

But I honestly cannot vote for any party at the moment. Anlocal Cllr of mine who happens to be labour is brilliant so in locals I’d go for him but in a general there’s no one I want to vote for.