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

[IwantToRetire]

Twenty-nine councils have requested a delay to their local elections which are due to take place in May. Of these, 21 are led by Labour, four are Conservative, two are Liberal, one is Green, and one is Independent.

It comes as Labour’s plans to scrap two-tier authorities and merge them into single unitary councils by 2028 are implemented.

The councils said a lack of resources needed to deliver local government reorganisation (LGR), and the cost of holding elections has led to the need for a delay.

The councils that have asked for a delay:

• Basildon Borough Council (Labour)
• Blackburn with Darwen Council (Labour)
• Burnley Borough Council (Burnley Independent Group)
• Cannock Chase District Council (Labour)
• Cheltenham Borough Council (Lib Dem)
• Chorley Borough Council (Labour)
• City of Lincoln Council (Labour)
• Crawley Borough Council (Labour)
• East Sussex County Council (Tory)
• Exeter City Council (Labour)
• Harlow District Council (Tory)
• Hastings Borough Council (Green)
• Hyndburn Borough Council (Labour)
• Ipswich Borough Council (Labour)
• Norwich City Council (Labour)
• Pendle Borough Council (Lib Dem)
• Peterborough City Council (Labour)
• Preston City Council (Labour)
• Redditch Borough Council (Labour)
• Rugby Borough Council (Labour)
• Stevenage Borough Council (Labour)
• Tamworth Borough Council (Labour)
• Thurrock Council (Labour)
• Welwyn Hatfield Borough Council (Labour)
• West Lancashire Borough Council (Labour)
• West Sussex County Council (Tory)
• Worthing Borough Council (Labour)

Or maybe you think local councils / councillors aren't that relevant or important?

Full article https://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/politics/local-elections-delay-councils-list-reform-b2902417.html

Not wanting to go off topic but I realised that some years ago when after a lot of formal and informal requests someone was sent from my local council to assess a problem with water not draining off the road.

This was because local councillors had asked for all cycle crossings roads should be level with the pavement ie lower the curb or raise the road level.

They went for raise the road so that rain water no longer drained toward a drain hole, but away from it!

The "officer" was quite happy to say that yes there was a sort of complicit agreement that officers could get on with how and if they wanted to progress any work so long as Councillors could on occassions stand up and anounce some totally useless vanity project or one that virtue signalled to those they thought worth appealing to.

The local council concerned has some of the worse social housing in terms of how long it takes repairs to be done, and other issues. Has had its system hacked, and years later people are being taken to court for unpaid rates that in fact they have paid. (One man has spent the past 10 years trying to get them to admit they were wrong!)

And as is common in many inner city areas more time and consideration is given to wealthier incomers that existing poorer residents.

And have a good money spinner in LTNs, some (maybe dodgy?) deals with Lime bikes etc..

Oh dear I think i know where that is, if so I used to work there 🤣 I think the only reason to do the democratic process is to get people out and hope the next one in is better. Particularly when you have a mayor involved (the least democratic thing i have ever seen in this system to be honest). Councillors are local busy bodies for the most part and have a role to play in dealing with some very local issues. Mayors are actively dangerous. The borough i now work in is a mess mainly due to Mayoral politics disrupting all the work, it is ridiculous.

I completely disagree. I have worked in a variety of local government organisations - in Close contact with councillors and at a high level - and the difference a robust and on the ball councillor can make is enormous.

They also set the strategic direction and priorities for the authority and these can differ hugely between different local authorities

What you are describing in your post @CheeseChamp suggests a seriously flawed organization where nobody understood the rules they should be following. That's a poor reflection on the officers.

I don't disagree with that. I've worked in 6 LAs now and only one had semi decent governance that was actually followed. It still felt like cllrs made zero difference to most of what went on. Maybe if you work at a higher levels you are in that bubble that makes it seem that is what is happening, but are you sure you sure it was actually effective and followed through to the lower levels of the org and impacted things that actually mattered?

Yes because part of my job was to follow things through from the highest level down to the detailed level and back again. Like I say there's just such wide variantce between different authorities and part of that is influenced by the leadership both at an executive level but also at a councillor level. Where we had active involved and professional councillors and honest and transparent officers you could get real and effective change.

There's loads of really good work going on in local government and I find it astonishing that some people haven't come across this.

If it makes people more enthusiastic about council elections then that's a good thing in itself. I speak as a polling clerk who has sat bored to death for local elections. One was so bad we joked about going out and dragging people in. The nice police officer went to the shop to top up supplies as we had eaten our days supply of food by lunchtime because we're so bored. Money for old rope but it was such a looong day.

I wonder if it is.

But now feel, from talking to others, and being on Next Door etc., that it is true in many places.

Not sure if it is worse in Labour Councils where, because they want good relation with whichever union their staff are members of, they just will not ever criticise an officer.

In a more recent set of circumstances I have been set such bat shit "explanations" from Councillors who assure me it must be true because officers told them it.

Also, in my local councils the Labour Party had now split into factions so public meetings are more about their factional dramas, to the extent that these meetings have limited the number of items that can be on the agenda and only time for 1 or 2 responses whether from other councillors or members of the public.

And yes Labour will get back in with a huge majority, not because those of us who have suffered their maladministration for years, but all the rich new comers who have colonised the area, and want to signal how "radical" they are.

I respect 3point5's robust defence of Councils, and it may well be that there are exceptions, but you only have to look at what happened to Grenfell to know it rarely happens.

Some years ago my mother received care at home based on health and social workers assessment. It was a high level of care and the local council agreed to cover the costs - and then gave the contract to an employment agency that mainly dealt with find temporary staff for restuarant kitchens. So the agency admitted they couldn't provide the type of care my mother was supposed to recieved from appropriately trained staff. I didn't put in a formal complaint the council agreed to a meeting to talk through the issues. When I got to the meeting I met this woman who basically said as she was retiring in a couple of weeks could I just let the issue drop as she didn't want it on her record!

This is a totally different council to mine, and one of my siblings in yet another area is having an absolute nightmare in relation to care provision for his son along with neighbour harrassment based on bullying someone with a disability.

None of the systems work.

The role that 3point5 seems to play, ie monitoring to see if something agreed is carried through from beginning to end, was common. But you would probably need as many people doing this as those doing the actual work.

This. What next? Cancel general elections?

This is why we need elections, so we can elect in councillors who will hold such local government officers to account!

Don’t give them any more ideas. I agree that they shouldn’t be cancelled, we can find money for other things so why not this?

Sadly with how political parties work you wont get anyone with any guts and dare I say integrity putting themselves forward to be a councillor.

They will be good team members.

Maybe the solution is that local councils should not have Councillors whose loyalties to a party, but more like a Management Committe where people get selected for their skills.

And more importantly some knowledge of the area ie where the pot holes are, where an LTN has meant the posh houses have polution free road to live on, but round the corner poorer people are lef to live with not only the pollution they have always had but the extra pollution from those who used to drive down the roads now LTNs.

Those without integrity can be voted out at the next election.

Absolutely 💯

Ours got cancelled last year - requested due to the proposed (and of course now delayed) reorganisation. Local word is that it was more due to an unholy alliance between the Labour run 2 big unitary authorities, and the Tory run county council who were both running scared about how Reform would do. The districts (mine if Lib Dem) didn’t get much of a say.

They have realised they can’t request that again - and if the govt decide we’re not having elections again this year it really just compounds the idea that the reorganisation is not about giving local power. I’m still to understand why decisions in my city being made by a far bigger body is about giving better local control.

I’m still to understand why decisions in my city being made by a far bigger body is about giving better local control.

Part of me thinks this isn't anything to do with you as a local resident.

This is about a lot of people, not always consciously, being influenced by US social structures.

They want to be Mayor or whatever the top political post will be of a large area. Which may say in terms of providing joined up public transport be a good thing.

But suspect that at a local area smaller (in terms of size) issues that are making people's lives misery will just get lost.

A local council is more likely to listen to say a housing estate within its boundaries, but that housing estate getting its voice heard at the larger more distant council is greatly reduced.

We are supposed to be merging within the next three years.

My council is one of the ones refusing to allow residents to get a vote and I'm raging about it. We have a useless Labour council I want to vote against to try to get rid of them. I'm not alone in these thoughts. It's scandalous they know full well they will lose so they cancel them.

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.

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

Yes that's why i said up thread it should be more like interviewing someone to be on a management committee.

Or alternatively, assuming they are representing a party, insist the party provides not just a brief bio and wish list of unattainable virtue signalling gimmick, but saying how well they deal with taking difficult decisions, what experience they have in managing not just staff, but committee leval decisions that can be said to have been vigourously assessed and conclusion reached without bias towards ingratiating themselves with their favourite in group.

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

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

The minister responsible for council elections has confirmed that 29 English councils planning elections for May will now have these postponed.
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/cx2ggk333l4o