[Closed] Local councillor elections Q.

Town Councils vary a lot in their size and their role relative to any Borough, Unitary, County (etc) Councils that cover their area. In the smaller towns there may not be a much Party policy influence on what they do, in the bigger towns it could be significant. Even if it makes no difference, I'd still vote for non-Tories, if for no other reason than to send a message that the Tories' behaviour (nationally) is unacceptable.

was wondering if I should take any of political leanings into consideration?

Nah. Just vote for the ones with interesting names.

Shall I just do the sensible thing & vote for any non tories

I'd do a bit more research to see how the second most powerfull party is in the area, and then vote Lab or Lib according to who has the better chance.

in the bigger towns it could be significant. Even if it makes no difference, I’d still vote for non-Tories,

The next step up in our area is Harrogate Borough Council, a Tory stronghold, which is why I want to know who isn’t a bluey so I can vote for them.

Lib dem for me as they are the only ones who put out newsletters regularly not just election time and keep us informed. But definitely not the tory bastards......

I’d do a bit more research

Apparently:

There’s 11 names & apparently I can vote for 10.

If that's the case I can't see that much research is needed. Other than checking whether you really do have 10 votes. Why would you have 10 local councillors?

Try to pick one that actually lives in the area.
Our local ward councillor lives some 200 miles away. Promised this and that , but ultimately has delivered nothing. He’s Lib Dem , not Tory though.
Unless the are living in your area day in day out how the heck do they know what’s going on

Around here the Lib Dems are In charge at the local level, but evened up with the tories when you add in some of the Bristol wards.

The Lib Dems are vocal and provide good info and support for the area, so can’t see much changing here hopefully, although the worry is that at constituency level the tories have powered into a huge lead, Lib Dems were 8000 up in 2010, last election the tories had a 12500 majority 😟

We have a lot of oldies in our area so let’s see what happens

I’d do a bit more research to see how the second most powerfull party is in the area, and then vote Lab or Lib according to who has the better chance.

This.

Even if it makes no difference, I’d still vote for non-Tories, if for no other reason than to send a message that the Tories’ behaviour (nationally) is unacceptable.

This.

But definitely not the tory bastards……

And this.

I vote for whoever lives closest to me in the hope that at least potholes will get fixed 😂

Just got my ballot paper for our local town council candidates. I’ll be voting but was wondering if I should take any of political leanings into consideration? There’s 11 names & apparently I can vote for 10.

Around here, there isnt an election for them, as so few people want to be on the Council.If you want to be a Councillor, you just apply to the Clerk, and you are pretty much guaranteed to get a seat on the Council. This is the parish council, which is the lowest form of public democracy. These people have no power at all, but have long committee meetings so they can talk rubbish, and still make no difference. I know all about it, as I was a councillor for nearly a year, until I resigned as they were such a bunch of back stabbing corrupt gits.
There were no party lines involved, these are the people who decide how much to spend on the local rubbish/street cleaning collection by the one man they employ. And the highlight of the year is to find out who will do the christmas light switch on.

We have a firmly labour council, who are pretty shit as they are well within their comfort zone. Local councillors are Tory and I've had some help off one of them pretty promptly.

So what do I do?

Personally can't wait till it's time for the general election. We seem to be on the Conservative mailing list so normally get a doorknock from their candidate. That could be fun.

There may well be some deeply unpleasant folk hiding in your list that need ferreting out. Round here it's the 'Scottish Family Party'. Such a pleasant sounding name for some horrible bigoted scum. Led by an ex kipper who has been arrested and removed from more than one school protesting to sex education and failing to condemn homosexually and same sex relationships Dare I say it I'd vote for a Tory over one of them (apart from hopefully not enough other people would vote SFP so they would remain unelected but you Tory vote might have a more profound effect).

Try to pick one that actually lives in the area.

They all do.
Trouble is, will any of them actually admit to being tory?

The bastards are brazen enough I suppose, & proud enough too, for some bizarre reason.

will any of them actually admit to being tory

If there are no Party names on the ballot paper, they must all be Independent, although usually the ballot paper would say that. Do any of the names match Harrogate Borough Councillors?

This is the parish council, which is the lowest form of public democracy. These people have no power at all…

A Parish Council and a Town Council are legally the same, they have the same [lack of] powers.

I'm going through the process of weeding out the chaff right now. I'm in Scotland like Convert above and likewise there are some unpleasant people standing under fluffy party names

There may well be some deeply unpleasant folk hiding in your list that need ferreting out

This^^^

So basically I am spending some time googling all the candidates and deducing the cut of their jib. The independents can be tricky as they may have limited internet presence, however they tend to pop up in the local press beefing about this and that. There is also some good data on a wiki page about the previous election and the breakdown of votes - should give you an idea of who has actually got a chance of winning

Tricky where I live - locally Lib Dems sort things out, but we've a Con that's strongly opposed to Bozo (spoken in Parliament). It's a close all, but given national shenanigans, local impact, it has to be Lib Dem. Even though we do get mail and email bombed by Lib Dems.

I had a visit from our local british flag party representative. He was very keen to explain how they will build more roads and also preserve our green spaces (other than the roads they would build over them). I also gather from the leaflet that they oppose “cancel culture” which must be a major issue for the town council.

Well I’ve had a few replies via the local chatter page. They all say they have no political affiliations, one of them is a company director of some sorts so she’s BOUND to be a tory.
One guy is ex army & he’s quite interested in getting the local kids involved with stuff, including running, cycling & general outdoorsy things, so he’s getting his box ticked. Just need to wheedle a few more out….

one of them is a company director of some sorts so she’s BOUND to be a tory.

Not necessarily.

Depends.

Some councillors work hard for the local area - answering queries and pushing concerns through the council officers. Others sit and do nothing.

Example - I have a local (SNP) councillor that follows up everything I send him. Another (Labour) refuses to get involved because "I am on the planning panel and this will be a conflict of interest".
Another (Green) is not my local councillor but follows stuff up because he understands it's in the local interest.
A quick trawl of your local paper will give you a clue as to who are the most active.

Local councils can also be hung between two parties so that's worth looking into.

And then you get the turn coats. Our potential Tory councillor used to run the local carbon-neutral group but is now pro-Brexit (in a constituency that voted 2/3 remain) and campaigns for more land-fill (because that's vote winner among the ignorant). #evil.

This is a full list of Burnley's various candidates. I did a double-take at the first name on page 10.

One of my candidates is representing the "Conservative and Unionist" party. So close, we almost had the Conservative and Unionist (Tory) party.