Hedge End Town Council’s budget for 2010/11 was over a million pounds. It is a significant provider of public services to a population of over 20,000 people.
All 21 seats on the Council are up for election this year.
The Conservative and Labour parties show no interest in Hedge End and have put up no candidates at all. There are two independent candidates and one from UKIP. These are the only opposition to the Liberal Democrat bulldozer.
There will be no election in four of the seven Town Council wards and the Lib Dems there will be elected unopposed. In the other three wards, the Lib Dems are guaranteed at least two councillors out the three seats being contested.
Even the Lib Dems could only field a slate of 21 candidates by importing five from outside the Town Council boundaries, and six of their candidates are either members of or candidates for other neighbouring parish councils.
Eastleigh Council Leader and County Councillor Keith House is standing for both Hedge End Town Council and Bursledon Parish Council.
Eastleigh Borough Councillor and County Councillor Rupert Kyrle is a member of Botley Parish Council and a candidate for Hedge End Town Council.
Eastleigh Borough Councillor and County Councillor Bruce Tennent is a candidate for both Hedge End and West End Parish Councils.
Eastleigh Borough Councillors Louise Bloom and Dan Clarke are candidates for both Hedge End and West End.
Past Chair of Hedge End Town Council Pearl Hicks is a candidate for both Hedge End and West End.
Surely the whole point of parish and town councillors is for them to represent the community in which they live? It’s even more worrying that some of these already busy people want to be elected to more than one parish council. It doesn’t look good for the health of local democracy in Hedge End.
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