On 7 May, all parts of Wokingham Borough have local elections to determine who serves as your local councillor and which party has political control of the borough council.
Local elections do not set everyone’s pulse racing, but they have real impacts on the lives of residents and can have a profound effect on how communities operate.
Some people use them as a way of registering their dissatisfaction with national government, or national politics more generally. That, of course, is their right – people vote for all sorts of reasons. But it’s worth remembering when you decide who to support that, even if you are focused on national issues, your vote may have important local consequences.
Let me give you three good reasons why you should vote in this year’s local elections and why you should vote with the local community firmly in mind.
First, borough councils like Wokingham are organizations with multi-million-pound budgets with a very wide range of responsibilities. They provide vital services for residents, such as adult and children’s social care, which help the frail elderly and adults and children with disabilities. Councils also work in partnership with agencies that support the local community, facilitating the efforts of others as well as directly providing services.
To be effective and financially sound, councils must be led by people of experience and integrity, with the character to make difficult decisions and think for the long term as well the short. Councillors, especially those in senior positions, also need the skill and commitment to build and nurture complex relationships with a great many partner organizations. They need to be good negotiators as well as good decision makers, capable of bringing people with very different perspectives together.
Second, if communities need a well-run and solvent council, they also need skilled and dedicated local councillors, committed to working for all residents, all year round, not just at election time. A good councillor can make a real difference to the quality of people’s lives and the nature of their community. I can think of many excellent councillors, of all parties, who have acted as great champions of their wards and have dedicated much time to serving the local community. Your vote, it’s worth remembering, is for an individual – an individual who will represent you and the place that you live. Councillors must, above all, be pragmatic and serious-minded, focused on community benefit and the public service. Those elected will have many demands on their time; as a voter, you need to be confident that the person you are voting for has the ability and the commitment to do the job.
There is a third reason why residents’ votes matter, perhaps this year more than any other I can recall. If there is a low turn-out in an election, candidates whose views don’t represent the majority in the community can win.
Let me give you an example. Most people in our borough – indeed, in our country – are appalled by the politics of President Trump. They oppose the importation of that kind of politics here. Yet if opponents of Trump-style politics don’t use their votes, they risk letting in those who shamelessly follow the Trump playbook.
By Cllr Stephen Conway
