I have had several interesting discussions over the past few days concerning the local elections. My opinion on this subject is as follows:

• That national political parties should not be represented
• That all candidates should be independent and live in the wards that they wish to represent

They make dismal reading. The fact is that the majority of people do not think that voting in a local election is worthwhile. Normally, this would be put down to voter apathy. It is an easy answer because the figures that I have used above appear to support the assumption, but what about candidate apathy? I made this point recently and was told that candidates are very busy people with day jobs and family life to considers, they just do not have the time to canvass everyone! My response was, if they want the job they have to do the work!

When I first moved into my current ward we were represented by an independent councillor who made an appointment to introduce himself to us. We were impressed by his energy and consideration and voted for him until he retired from local politics. The next candidate was a Labour Party representative. I remember contacting them about a proposed parking permit being introduced into our area as a result of a new stadium being built close to where we live. She told us that we would never have to pay to park outside our own homes and that the permits were to deter visitors to the stadium from parking in residential areas. I wish I had asked her to confirm that in writing; we now pay £22 a year for each car we own and have to pay for visitors too.

There used to be a local dance hall that was once very popular, it was even rumoured that Fred Astaire danced there. The owner was a very elderly lady who wanted to sell the property as she could no longer either run it or maintain it. Along with some other residents we approached her with a plan to turn the dancehall into a community centre to which she agreed if we could meet the asking price. We were even allowed inside the closed building and it was still beautiful with most of its period decoration and architecture in place. After putting together a business plan we approached our councillor, the Labour representative, but despite being congratulated on our idea they decided to invest the money in a ‘street warden’ and bought a shop as a base instead. The street wardens and the shop are gone, so is the dance hall. The whole street warden scheme was a national campaign by the then Labour government led by Tony Blair.

I cannot help but think that an independent representative who lived locally might have given us more sympathy and not toed the party line, not least because they are not committed first and foremost to representing a political party.