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May 2025 Local Elections - Was Undecided Now Decided (16th Dec 2024  20:32:35) Under the Govt's White Paper released today, 21 councils may have local elections suspended - originally scheduled for May 2025. This 'could' mean Labour will delay our local elections planned for next year - possibly until 2026 or 2027. If true, this doesn't feel very democratic?

Re: May 2025 Local Elections - Steve miller (16th Dec 2024  21:24:48) bbc.co.uk/news/articles/c30n72j4nrqo As explained here it seems a reasonable idea. Not a lot of spending money on electing councils that will shortly be abolished!

Re: May 2025 Local Elections - Joe (16th Dec 2024  21:45:59) I think this is because the Labour Government wants to abolish most district councils in favour of all the work done by district councils being done in future by the county councils and Mayors, which therefore means abolishing this a level of local government will no longer present a need to have any district councillors. If it saves a lot of taxpayers money and possibly a reduction in council tax then it is a good idea if done properly.

Re: May 2025 Local Elections - Susie (17th Dec 2024  04:22:27) Joe There will never be a reduction in council tax whatever changes they might make to local governments. All those pensions and salaries have to be paid for still. Staff will be relocated it's all been done before, move offices, build more hubs etc etc get rid of one tier and create another. Good old labour, but they won't tax the working man! And I believe in Father Christmas ho ho ho.

Re: May 2025 Local Elections - Joe (17th Dec 2024  08:54:19) Suse I do not believe that the idea of removing a large layer of local government is akin to a normal merger? The staff who work in all the many local district councils in Hampshire are a) not all just be doing the same work if they moved to work for the county council in Winchester ? And not all staff from all over Hampshire are going to be able to travel there. I am not sure precisely, but for the whole of Hampshire there are at least 100 or more district councillors who are not staff as such, although they are paid allowances and the leader of the district council does get substantially more in remunerations. They will save on the cost of all the elections for a start. Who knows about town and Parish councils yet ?

Re: May 2025 Local Elections - Joe (17th Dec 2024  09:05:18) I have just looked it up and EHDC alone has 43 elected district councillors, so this will affect many different areas of district councils, eg Basingstoke and Dean, Havant, Fleet, Fareham, Gosport , New Forest, Isle of Wight. Southampton, and Portsmouth are unitary authorities and the structure of these may change too. We obviously do not know all the details yet but surely cost saving will be achieved hopefully!

Re: May 2025 Local Elections - Was Undecided Now Decided (17th Dec 2024  10:00:44) Several political commentators - who may be more cynical - are pointing out that stopping local elections prevents Labour losing ground to Reform UK. Local elections are typically seen as a vote of confidence by the public in the Govt, so removing that democratic right for the electorate prevents any local change in political direction. That could be by design. Separately - does Hampshire need a Mayor?

Re: May 2025 Local Elections - Joe (17th Dec 2024  13:19:40) There are local Mayors anyway? There is one in Bordon and one in Alton and Haslemere - most town councils already have them ? No need for an extra one for Hampshire - there already is a Lord Lieutenant for each county,

Re: May 2025 Local Elections - Simon (17th Dec 2024  15:29:16) Most councils are broke, so a time-and-money hungry administrative exercise doesn't sound like best way forward.

Re: May 2025 Local Elections - C (17th Dec 2024  15:54:20) Lord Lieutenant is a non-political ceremonial role only, they don’t set or deliver policies.

Re: May 2025 Local Elections - John Jonson (18th Dec 2024  08:07:11) So those who are in favour of cancelling local elections claim that this will save public money: The money situation is so bad, going by your logic: Henceforth, all elections should be cancelled. It's crystal clear. Labour got voted in purely because the Torries have become unelectable, not because people wanted Labour. Now, having been grudgingly voted in, Labour is cancelling democracy so that they can stay in. No shame.

Re: May 2025 Local Elections - Joe (18th Dec 2024  09:47:30) No the logic does not follow to cancel all elections - but local government has two different layers and it would simplify things to only have one layer of administrators dealing with our council taxes. If they merged the 2 layers it hopefully would cut costs.

Re: May 2025 Local Elections - John Jonson (18th Dec 2024  10:25:39) Simplify the system when / where suits? Also simplifying would be saying NO all non-essential wasteful expenses, across the board, equally applied without exceptions, until funds might be replenished. NO to: Greedy wasteful workshy public sector, Greedy influential unions, Inefficient wasteful over-funded NHS, Vanity global environmentalism projects, Erroneous national environmentalist subsidies, Grandstand foreign aide, DEI total nonsense, Cushy immigrant pull factors, Public subsidised for new private houses, The list goes on... Governments make choices, for the good and for the bad. Labour's record is firmly with the latter.

Re: May 2025 Local Elections - Aggree (18th Dec 2024  11:16:25) Yes John the list goes on must be the worst government ever bring back Boris at least he would keep us out of the dreaded EU . How can a government pay the well off more and take away from the least well off crazy. They will soon be paying the illegal migrants to come here. Total disaster government.

Re: May 2025 Local Elections - AF (18th Dec 2024  12:52:03) Oh dear Comrade Starmer keeps upsetting more and more people and messing up everything. At least Liz Truss had the common decency to resign when it all went wrong. Come Comrade do the Right thing - RESIGN.

Re: May 2025 Local Elections - M (18th Dec 2024  16:49:33) I believe a shake up of local government is long overdue. It seems ridiculous to have 3 layers of local government (Parish/Town, District and County) who all have different responsibilities. Take waste collection/disposal. Parish council provide some waste bins on their land, and have to arrange/negotiate emptying. District council empties all the other public waste bins, household waste and fly tipping, again having to negotiate a contract. County council provides Household Waste Recycling centres and again another contract and provider to be found. Where's the sense in that, surely much better value, and a joined up service, if only one was responsible? There are many other public services (grass cutting, road maintenance, planning, housing, benefits etc etc) that have similar demarcations with duplication of staffing and administration which could be provided more efficiently, and cheaper, with just one council in control. I for one would welcome just one local council (County?) who would be the one stop shop for all public services.

Re: May 2025 Local Elections - Dave B (18th Dec 2024  18:01:58) @AF, just because YOU do not like the election result does not mean the NEWLY elected government has lost its mandate. They were elected for 5 years.....they have a massive majority and quite frankly the Conservatives or Reform are not ready for Government. And before you bang on about broken promises do not forget Boris and his broken promises and lies. BTW, I hate Labour with a passion but I prefer our democratic system and safeguards rather than populist nonsense where we would change governments and prime ministers every six months. Do not forget how hated and unpopular Margaret Thatcher was in 1979 to 1982. God knows what would have happened to the country if she had resigned because of public clamour. (and no...i am not comparing Starmer as PM with Maggie)

Re: May 2025 Local Elections - John Jonson (18th Dec 2024  20:26:52) I agree with both Dave B and M. Streamlining local authorities is a good concept BUT: Not based on party politics. The process must be lead by non party-political interests. Opposition parties are not yet ready for government, not yet. But they are fast evolving and should be ready before the 5 year terms is out. By which stage please let Labour take a breather from government obligations!

Re: May 2025 Local Elections - Was Undecided Now Decided (20th Dec 2024  11:19:32) Local elections must be allowed to take place, to do otherwise through a strategic excuse is straight out of the Marxist playbook. "Democracy delayed is democracy denied".

Re: May 2025 Local Elections - Joe (20th Dec 2024  11:57:27) If the government has removed the district council level of administration in 2 years time there will be no need to elect district councillors - there will still be local elections for Parish and county councillors and presumably they will need more of those than there are at present. If that doesn’t happen then it makes sense to tie up all local elections to be held on the same date, because presently the district elections are held on a different 4 year cycle.

Re: May 2025 Local Elections - Was Undecided Now Decided (2nd Jan 2025  09:49:55) Hampshire County Council is one of a number of Councils being given until 10 January to join the Lab Govt's plan to devolve strategic authorities. www.bbc.com/news/articles/c7veg6l14dpo One anticipated outcome would be delay to local elections planned for May 2025. Many politicians and commentators highlight that local elections are seen as an important measure of support/distain for the incumbent Govt between General Elections. Preventing local elections is straight from the Marxist playbook. 'Democracy delayed is democracy denied'.

Re: May 2025 Local Elections - Sam (2nd Jan 2025  20:19:14) Joe’s response is the most sensible one, elections for something that no longer exists very shortly after it would be a waste of money, time and effort.

Re: May 2025 Local Elections - Was Undecided Now Decided (9th Jan 2025  20:09:36) Hampshire County Council have voted in favour of reforms meaning a delay to democratic local elections in 2025. Voters will be denied the opportunity to have a say on who runs their local councils, while the deckchairs are rearranged on the Titanic one more time. New unitary authorities will all feature majors in the image of London. Critics point out that this also helps Labour avoid defeat in any 2025 local elections. As I've mentioned before, it's straight from the Marxist playbook - deny democracy by delaying it.

Re: May 2025 Local Elections - Trevor Maroney (10th Jan 2025  21:03:26) The 2025 county elections should not be cancelled or postponed. Any proposed reform of the electoral system should be done by local councillors voted into office on a mandate from the current (today's) electorate; not be those elected 4 years ago. Given the results of the July national election voters' views have clearly changed. Whatever the outcome of the May election it should be up to the 2025 batch of councillors to decide if or when and how the local electoral system should be changed in consultation with existing unitary, district and borough councils. I believe that any and all workable solutions should be fully costed and compared with the existing electoral system before being put to voters in a local referendum; not just pushed thorough by the government diktat of the day. If I am not mistaken, that is how democracy should work, but do please correct me if you think I'm wrong. We shouldn't allow these drastic changes to be just bounced through by existing parties with vested interests wishing to retain their current power base: national or local. I am happy to debate this issue further provided individuals use their real names and declare any vested interests. For the record, I am no longer a member of any political party. I am looking at this issue from a cross-party perspective as, I believe, everyone should. After all, we do live in a democracy. Trevor Maroney

Re: May 2025 Local Elections - Was Undecided Now Decided (16th Jan 2025  15:10:10) Very interesting and timely that questions around the cancelled local elections were raised in parliament today (by Rupert Lowe MP). For those who may not have seen or read what he said and asked (paraphrased): 1. Should we continue to pay council tax after the cancelled date of May local elections, as our democratic right to vote will be stripped from us, and 2. What should the then unelected councillors be called, after May I appreciate not everyone can yet see how significant the cancellation of local elections is, as it's being buried under the guise of wider reforms. But it is important that we continue to ask why we are not being given our democratic right to vote.

Re: May 2025 Local Elections - Charlie (17th Jan 2025  13:22:46) Totally agree.

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