Local Elections for 6th May 2010?

If the elections are held on 6th May 2010 (so long as Gordon Brown doesn't mess this up by holding the elections in tandem on 3rd June 2010) we will have local elections in two of the four wards in St Neots. The seats due up are 1 in Eynesbury and 1 in Priory Park. Eaton Socon and Eaton Ford are not due to vote at the locals.

The Eynesbury ward seat is currently held by the Conservative Andrew Gilbert. He is also standing in Birkenhead for the Conservative Party against Frank Field (Labour) at the General Election. So I'm not too sure how much effort he will put into Eynesbury this time round. When the seat was last fought in 2008 the Conservatives won with a majority of 365. This would be hard for the Liberal Democrats to overturn. But with the right strategy Liberal Democrat candidate Cllr Steve Van de Kerkhove could win.

The Priory Park ward is far, far closer. The Liberal Democrats won the seat in 2007 with a majority of just 16. With Liberal Democrat Cllr Bob Eaton up for election this will mean a hard fought ward. But that is if the Liberal Democrats aren't packed off to Huntingdon again!

The trouble is this is very likely to be in tandem with a General Election. It will be very likely that in both seats it will be those who vote for either The Green Party or UKIP who will decide the local elections. To my mind, the local Liberal Democrats should be fighting the Conservatives on Djanogly and the mess the Conservatives have made of HDC.

At this election I'm voting: