More on local elections.

This is a deeper look at the Local Elections in Huntingdonshire. The Conservatives could lose the local elections. The Liberal Democrats would have to be the largest Party and even a majority party. Labour haven't really got anywhere to win.

Both Ian Curtis (UKIP) and Lord Toby Jug (OMRLP) are standing in both the General and local elections.

The combination of the District Elections with the General Election causes a few problems with predictions. For instance how will a Green voter use their local election vote where there is no local Green candidate. The same goes for General Election voters elsewhere. This will make the local elections uncertain. In effect it will be the Euros all over again.

Where the parties have local election candidates.

Ward	Conservatives	Liberal Democrat	Labour	UKIP	Green	OMRLP	Independent
Alconbury and The Stukeleys	X	X	X
Buckden	X	X	X
Earith	X	X	X	X
Elton and Folksworth	X	X	X	X
Godmanchester	X	X	X
Gransden and The Offords	X	X	X
Huntingdon East	X	X	X		X
Huntingdon West	X	X	X	X	X
Ramsey	X	X	X	X
Sawtry	X	X	X	X
St Ives East	X	X	X	X
St Ives South	X	X	X	X		X
St Neots Eynesbury	X	X	X	X
St Neots Priory Park	X	X	X
The Hemingfords	X	X	X				X
Warboys and Bury	X	X	X	X
Yaxley and Farcet	X	X	X	X

What is UKIP doing?

The UKIP are pushing ahead with putting up more local candidates than ever before in Huntingdonshire. Out of the 17 seats up for election 10 have UKIP candidates. Good for them. When taking a look at where the candidate come from 6 out of the 10 come from the Ramsey area.

I see Ian Curtis is on the list. Is this the same Ian Curtis how is standing for parliament to represent Huntingdon? Very probably!

The intervention of UKIP may have a effect. Some are already predicting a few more UKIP wins. I'm not too sure. This could lead to a few more Liberal Democrat wins.
I believe this could be the case in Eynesbury.

The Ramsey addresses:
Ian James Curtis, 40 Little Whyte, Ramsey, Huntingdon, Cambs, PE26 1DS
Peter David Reeve, 4 Meadow Walk, Ramsey, Cambridgeshire, PE26 1JY
Shirley Joy Reeve, Flat 4, 16 Great Whyte, Ramsey, PE26 1HA
Michael Alan Horwood, 10 Liberator Road, Upwood, Ramsey, Cambs, PE26 2PY
Lisa Ann Duffy, 4 Meadow Walk, Ramsey, Cambs, PE26 1JY
Robert Hamilton Brown, 12 Lancaster Road, Upwood, Ramsey, Cambs, PE26 2PX

Could the Conservatives lose control of HDC in 2010? - Update

I published a blog way back on 30/12/09 on whether the Conservatives could lose control of HDC. I concluded this was mathematically possible. Whether the Liberal Democrats and UKIP had the ability to take up this challenge is still to be seen.

The state of the parties are currently: Conservative 36, Liberal Democrat 12, UKIP 2, Ind 2.

The Conservatives are defending 12 seats. The Liberal Democrats are defending 3. UKIP is defending 1. The Independent is not re-standing.

If the Conservatives lose all the seats they are defending they would have 24 seats. If the Liberal Democrats gained all the Conservative seats they would be equal to the Conservatives. If they took the former Independent seat and the UKIP they could be the largest party on 26. Unlikely but it mathematically could happen.

Seats up for election and the defending party.

Alconbury and The Stukeleys - Conservative
Buckden - Liberal Democrat
Earith - Conservative
Elton and Folksworth - Conservative
Godmanchester - Conservative
Gransden and The Offords - Conservative
Huntingdon East - Liberal Democrat
Huntingdon West - Conservative
Ramsey - UKIP
Sawtry - Independent
St Ives East - Conservative
St Ives South - Conservative
St Neots Eynesbury - Conservative
St Neots Priory Park - Liberal Democrat
The Hemingfords - Conservative
Warboys and Bury - Conservative
Yaxley and Farcet - Conservative

Hunts Liberal Democrats website update.

St Neots (Huntingdonshire Liberal Democrats)

I see the St Neots Liberal Democrats have finally gotten around to updating their webpage. Gone is the 2008 picture and text. In comes a page of announcing the candidates for the local elections. No pictures. No Biography. No political messages. This is bad campaigning. Something Martin Land with 37 years of campaigning experience should be on top of. He isn't!

On the front page we have a couple of articles on the Digital Economy Act and about the overnight count versus a next day count. 

Councillors' Expenses

Now I'm one who feels we should pay our politicians. Otherwise they can hide behind the illusion of being unpaid and doing it for the good of the community. This doesn't help in holding our politicians into account. Looking at the 2008/09 expenses claims for HDC Councillors I have noticed one obvious point. Why are 2/3rds of the Councillors getting some sort of Special Responsibility Allowance? That is 36 out of 52 councillors claiming this additional allowance. With the prospect of readjustment during 2010 this total is likely to increase this total. There is something wrong where the majority of Councillors get a responsibility allowance.

£6.1 million deficit and the Councillors are being paid so much. I still say they should cut their pay and allowances until the deficit is gone.

Even more on Car Parking!

Even more is dribbling out about the decision over the charging for car parks. Now I'm informed the minutes of the meeting of 16th December 2009 which were "private" have subsequently been published. Funny that. So what do the minutes of the "private" meeting say (google docs version here)?

The minutes tell me the that Cllr Farrer went to this secret meeting about the Car Parking charges. Cllr Farrer knew about this on 16th December 2009. This doesn't explain why he says in the News and Crier 11th February 2010 that "Cllr Farrer complained that he and his fellow local ward member Cllr David Harty were not consulted on the issue of charging". 

In the end the St Neots Conservative Councillors aren't telling us the truth. The truth is they knew these charges were going ahead way before the public campaign. They went to meetings or could have gone to meetings and made their voices heard. Two did. Cllr Thomas was on the secret working party and Cllr Farrer turned up. The rest couldn't be bothered.

All this Conservative "activity" is just a pantomime to cover up their inability to do anything!

The St Neots Conservative Councillors are squealing about these charges. They were consulted. Some were even part of the process. But in the end the one overriding problem is the £6.1 million deficit not one of the SNCCG wants to talk about.

Vote for change in Huntingdonshire

I believe Huntingdonshire needs to Vote For Change. The Conservatives have been in charge for 34 years. The District Council needs to cut £6.1 million out of a £24 million budget. HDC is in a financial mess. Huntingdonshire needs a change in administration. On 6 May Vote for change. Vote to get rid of this Conservative administration.

In my opinion, if voters cast their vote in the way indicated below, the Conservatives would lose control. The Liberal Democrats would be the largest party.

Ward	Vote for
Alconbury and The Stukeleys	Liberal Democrat
Buckden	Liberal Democrat
Earith	Liberal Democrat
Elton and Folksworth	Liberal Democrat
Godmanchester	Liberal Democrat
Gransden and The Offords	Liberal Democrat
Huntingdon East	Liberal Democrat
Huntingdon West	Liberal Democrat
Ramsey	UKIP
Sawtry	Liberal Democrat
St Ives East	UKIP
St Ives South	Liberal Democrat
St Neots Eynesbury	Liberal Democrat
St Neots Priory Park	Liberal Democrat
The Hemingfords	Liberal Democrat
Warboys and Bury	Liberal Democrat
Yaxley and Farcet	UKIP

St Neots local election candidates

The candidates have been announce for the District Elections on 6th May 2010 (Full list here). In St Neots it is the east bank that is voting. Those on the west bank don't have local elections this year.
There are 4 candidates for the Eynesbury ward. The introduction of a UKIP candidate makes this Conservative safe seat a marginal.

St Neots Eynesbury Ward - Conservative
Party	Candidate Name	Last Result 2008
Conservative	Ian Gardener	1031	Elected
Liberal Democrat	Steven van de Kerkhove	666
Labour	Bill O'Connor	182
UKIP	Marian Appleton	---

From the addresses given by the candidates, there is only 1 candidate who lives in the ward and that is Steven van de Kerkhove (Liberal Democrat). Bill O'Connor (Labour) and Marian Appleton live elsewhere in St Neots. The Conservative candidate Ian Gardiner lives in the village of Grafham. Couldn't the Conservatives actually find a candidate from Eynesbury?

I will be voting for Steve van de Kerkhove - Liberal Democrat. 

Moving onto the other seat we have 3 candidates from the main parties. 

St Neots Priory Ward - Liberal Democrat
Party	Candidate Name	Last Result 2007
Conservative	Barry Chapman	726
Liberal Democrat	Robert Eaton	742	Elected
Labour	Patricia Nicholls	96

Of these candidate only Robert Eaton (Liberal Democrat) is local to the ward. Barry Chapman (Conservative) and Patricia Nicholls (Labour) both live in the Eaton Ford ward. 

I urge voters in the Priory ward to vote for Robert Eaton - Liberal Democrat

2 Questions for the Elections on 6th May 2010

On the 6th May 2010 there is very likely to be a combined General Election and Local Elections.

The General Election

The political parties have decided the Huntingdon constituency is a safe Conservative seat and won't be doing much here. There is bigger constituencies to win elsewhere. So Huntingdon isn't on any target list.

The Conservatives will come up with the argument that winning Huntingdon is essential for a Cameron win. Huntingdon isn't essential for a Cameron win. Not winning in Huntingdon will mean Cameron will be a seat down. This is two down in a majority. The one question in the General Election is:

Do you want Djanogly to represent the Huntingdon constituency?

If the answer is YES then you are forgiving Djanogly for his part in the MPs' Expenses scandal.

If the answer is NO then great. Now choose which other candidate you will vote for. I'm voting for Ian Curtis, the UKIP candidate.

So lets vote to change Djanogly and the Conservative administration at HDC.

The Local Elections

There will be many facts, figures and promises made in these elections. Before you believe in any of them there is only one figure that you need to remember. This is £6.1 million - the size of the deficit. Because until the political elites decide how this deficit is going to be tackled any promises are worthless. Extra spending will add to the deficit. 

Now it is the Conservatives who got us into this mess. So I feel it is up to the Conservatives to specify where the cuts could fall. It is not up to the opposition parties to specify but they should give some idea where the cuts will fall. So the one question for the local elections is:

How will you deal with HDC £6.1 million budget deficit?