Local elections will go ahead in May this year, the government has confirmed, following suggestions they should be postponed due to the ongoing pandemic.
Across the Island, electors will go to the polls on 6th May voting for ward representatives for the Isle of Wight Council, the Hampshire and Isle of Wight Police Crime Commissioner and in some areas, town and parish councillors too.
Speaking in the House of Commons yesterday afternoon (Wednesday), Chloe Smith, the Cabinet Office minister, said safe and secure elections are the cornerstone of any democracy and Parliament’s decision is that they should go ahead in a COVID secure way but the decision would be kept under review.
A high bar would be have to be set to delay to the polls, with robust evidence needed to change the date, as elections have continued safely, not just in some parts of the UK but around the world.
Ms Smith said:
“Due to the pandemic, many elections have already been delayed by a year but voters have the right to be heard and to decide who governs them.
“During the pandemic, local authorities will have taken a lot of serious decisions impacting directly on those residents, from council tax to road closures, and these are important issues where elected representatives should be held to account.”
Following the postponement of elections in 2020, including the Hampshire and IW Police and Crime Commissioners poll, government officials have been working with the Electoral Commission to provide guidance and determine how to safely deliver the polls, which will be updated closer to the time.
Voters have a choice as to how they vote — either in person at polling stations, by postal vote or by proxy (someone voting on your behalf).
Ms Smith said she would actively encourage anyone who is shielding, or would prefer not to attend the polling station, to apply for a postal or proxy vote now.
A secondary piece of legislation will be brought to the House of Commons soon to potentially extend the deadline for proxy voting so that if you are infected with COVID-19 in the days before the polls, everyone can still be able to vote.
Ms Smith said campaigning activity should only be carried out safely, adhering to regulations in place at the time, and invited all political parties “to play a responsible roll in ensuring they are providing information to voters in a safe way that does voters the credit they deserve in an important moment of choice but that takes place in unusual times.”
We need to ensure we all vote, dull as local elections can seem.
For this crew we now are burdened with have ruined, or are in the process of ruining all Island people’s standards of life here.
As the huge building they allow will cause massive problems for the future, as lack of jobs, thus more crime, and ever more added to the growing number of unneeded people, as having children becomes the ‘only way’ of then securing a home and income for many.
Roads will become intolerable. Our roads were never built as many mainland roads were for such amounts of traffic, and putting in a few roundabouts will do little and the traffic will just bottle-neck at the next pinch point. Doctors dentists, and our small Hospital will become ever more hard to gain an appointment as huge new bodies arriving need to be treated.
School classes will consist of more ‘mobile’ temporary, yet becoming permanent fixtures with over full classes filled with a growing diverse student ratio, many then requiring costly one to one interrupters, both costly and slowing progress of other students.
The types of crime we only currently witness on a screen will be occurring before our very eyes as most of this crime is not prevalent in more ‘local’ populations, but will be once such only exist in far flung areas.
This was NOT inevitable, it has been encouraged by greed from those who are voted in to care for US and this Island first, but who have failed, not by incompetence but personal gain and greed.
They must be all removed at our ONLY chance of showing our true distaste for what they are doing.
Moaning on here is NOT enough.
USE your vote wisely.
Very concise summary of the years of enduring these awful so called ‘leaders’ for our Island.
I fully agree that the huge amount of building to be undertaken is not ‘organic’ and little meant for ‘Island people’, but all part of a deeper, more lucrative scheme for developers, who are ‘more’ than just grateful for the granted permission from these dubious, destructive people who we foolishly trusted to look after this Island and OUR best interests NOT theirs or those who have out-bred their own surroundings and now will do the same here.
I shall be at the front of the queue come voting day.
For those who still ‘trust’ them and see such as a ‘chance’ to obtain a house, sadly the price to pay will be fewer jobs, and lower on the ‘housing list’ as the multitude of newcomers arriving here will cancel any perceived benefit for local people in many cases.
Some will need to wait for proof of what I say, but to the rest of the more enlightened I say vote to remove these cretins, it will be the only way to protect for the future much of what we now enjoy.
We must vote conservative to prevent the scourge of socialism .
When I go to vote I expect to vote in secret.