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06
Apr
Why are so few independents standing in the Harrogate Town Council election?
When the candidates for Harrogate Town Council were revealed on Thursday, the publication sprung up a few surprises.
Perhaps the most striking was the dearth of independents on the ballot sheet.
Just two out of 80 candidates were classed as non-political. Meanwhile, three of the five major parties managed to field a prospective town councillor in all 19 wards.
In this article, the Stray Ferret analyses the candidate list and assesses why so few independents have chosen to stand.
Lack of independents
Two months ago, the Stray Ferret published an article where we looked at whether the new town council should be politically-led.
Fast forward to the afternoon of Thursday, April 3, and our question was unequivocally answered — it will be.
Just two candidates, Paul Haslam and Christopher Dunn, have opted to stand as independents on polling day — though Mr Dunn is classed as "local".
Both are also standing in Old Bilton ward.
The rest of the 80 candidates come from the major parties — Labour, Reform UK, Liberal Democrats, Conservatives and Green Party.
Cllr Michael Schofield.
Concern was raised ahead of the publication of candidates over whether the town council would be best served being controlled by one of the major parties.
Cllr Michael Schofield, who sits as an independent on North Yorkshire Council and is not standing for the town council, said he felt there was a lack of collaboration between political parties.
As a result, he said the town council would not be best served by being politically-led.
He said:
As can be seen from national politics, there is little if any “collaboration” between these three political parties.
Therefore my question to the fantastic residents of my beautiful home town is ‘If the town council is politically led do you really believe it will come to benefit the town?’
Similar concerns were raised by Jon Starkey, who stood for North Yorkshire Council as an independent in Boroughbridge in May 2022.
Mr Starkey pointed out previously that those standing without the help of a party machine would find the task an uphill battle.
Following the publication of the candidates list, he told the Stray Ferret that the fact there are only two independents on the ballot paper was “very sad”.
Mr Starkey said:
The fact that all the political parties have decided to field political candidates to what is essentially a parish council is very sad, the fact there's only two 'Independents' standing is even worse, Harrogate Town Council should be independent and have no political involvement.
North Yorkshire Council have totally failed in the way this proposed election and formation of a town council has been explained to the Harrogate residents, you can see from some of the comments that people have absolutely no idea what a town council will be responsible for.
Mr Starkey added that he felt the council should have publicised the election more to encourage more non-political candidates.
He added that information on how to stand was not “clear and concise”, which he felt may have put some independents off putting themselves forward.
Mr Starkey said:
North Yorkshire Council should have done some form of proper advertising to promote this and to encourage regular non-political local people to stand, the whole thing should be non-political just like the parish councils are.
The fact that some existing North Yorkshire councillors are standing — and will very probably be elected — is even worse as they will end up double seating which completely defeats the purpose of the whole thing.
The uphill battle which faces independent candidates is evident in how many of the political parties have managed to stand a full slate of candidates.
Reform UK, Conservatives and Liberal Democrats will be standing in each of the 19 wards.
The Green Party is standing in 14 seats, despite aiming for 19. Meanwhile, Labour will be standing in eight seats after similarly planning for a candidate in every ward.
But the process has not been straight forward for political parties either.
The Stray Ferret understands that some parties found selling the prospect of being a town councillor a difficult task, in particular because the role is unpaid.
Ultimately, the decision over who leads the town council will be up to the electorate.
Although, in this case, it will be a matter of which party leads the authority — not whether it should be politically-led or not.
Register to vote
Councillors elected on May 1 will serve a term of two years. Elections will be held again in 2027 for a four-year term to align with elections for North Yorkshire Council and all other parish councils.
Meanwhile, voters have until April 11 to register to vote in the Harrogate Town Council election. You can register to vote here.
You can read the full list of candidates for Harrogate Town Council here.
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