Category: Local Elections

Local Elections: What are the Candidates Saying?

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We’re getting very close to election day so I’ve decided to take a look at what the candidates are saying (and how they’re saying it).

A large number of candidates have Twitter accounts and use them for promoting their canvassing efforts. Very few include the actual issues they discuss though. This could be a limitation of the platform but knowing that they’ve had a “great response” tells you very little. These accounts are invaluable for people like me, who are following the election closely, want to know what’s happening now and to get in touch with candidates easily.

This could be a limitation of the platform but knowing that they’ve had a “great response” tells you very little.

A smaller number seem to be getting their “group” message across via Facebook pages. These are pages representing all the candidates for a party (or group) and have a mix of content: Typically news about community events, photos of them canvassing and updates related to their pledges. I’ve noticed a number of groups paying for sponsored posts to reach their audience.

The issue with Twitter and Facebook is that it’s hard to find the important information amongst the stream of updates. I’ve just scanned back through one group’s page and noticed some biographies. These were very interesting but who’s going to find them?

Sadly, very few candidates have dedicated websites. The ones that do tend to be existing councillors. MPs and AMs for the main parties appear to have access to template websites but these don’t seem to be available for candidates. A simple one page website to find out about the candidate’s background and their pledges would be ideal.

atcnc_whiteTelevision and radio are also options for getting the candidates’ messages out but I haven’t seen any programmes in the schedules of local stations. Radio Cardiff did some excellent interviews with Assembly candidates last year so I’m hoping they’ll be able to do something.

Video is a medium that’s cheap and easy to produce these days. I look forward to seeing if any candidates publish any YouTube or Facebook Live videos.

I’m assuming at this point that, unless there’s a sudden late rush, the candidates are going to be relying on canvassing and leaflets. I imagine this is very effective but I don’t see why they can’t put together a simple website to supplement it.

I don’t want to have to make an effort to collect and store all the various leaflets that will be posted over the next few weeks.

I don’t want to have to make an effort to collect and store all the various leaflets that will be posted over the next few weeks. I’d rather have the ability to view each candidate’s background and pledges on the web in my own time and be able to contact them easily if I have any questions.

Is this too much to ask?

I’m going to spend the next few weeks compiling a list of links to all the candidate sites I can find. If you spot any I’ve missed, please get in touch. I’m also sending out a questionnaire to all the candidates I have contact details for. This will hopefully provide some of the information we need to make an informed choice on election day.

Image credit – Ben Collins-Sussman

Final Candidates Announced

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Cardiff Council have published the official “Statements of Persons Nominated”. These are the lists of official candidates for May’s local elections.

I’ve added the few that I didn’t know about to our candidate list. We’re going to keep updating this list with Twitter accounts as we find them.

Some interesting points to note:

  • There are 88 candidates over the 8 wards.
  • There are candidates from 7 parties.
  • There are 5 independent candidates.
  • There are 4 UKIP candidates, all standing in Llanishen.
  • There are 2 Green Party candidates.
  • There is 1 candidate from the Trade Unionist and Socialist Coalition.

 

The number of candidates in each party:

Party Count
Conservative 21
Labour 21
Lib Dems 21
Plaid Cymru 13
Independent 5
UKIP 4
Green Party 2
TUSC 1

The number of candidates in each ward:

Ward Seats No of candidates
Llanishen 4 18
Whitchurch and Tongwynlais 4 16
Heath 3 14
Rhiwbina 3 11
Llandaff North 2 10
Gabalfa 2 8
Pontprennau and Old St Mellons 2 7
Lisvane 1 4

We still need to get in touch with all the candidates so we can send them our questionnaire. If you’re a candidate please contact us.

Local Elections – You Need to Know This Information!

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Local elections: They’re on your doorstep

Local elections in Wales take place on Thursday 4 May. Make sure you can take part and register to vote.

Registering to vote is easy. You can do it in just a few minutes at gov.uk/register-to-vote. You’ll need to provide your National Insurance number, your date of birth and your address.

Thursday 13 April is the deadline to register to vote.

Don’t miss out! If you can’t vote in person you can still have your say with a postal or proxy vote (where a person you trust votes on your behalf). Go to yourvotematters.co.uk to find out how to apply.

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Voter Registration

  • Local elections are on Thursday 4 May.
  • You will decide who represents you in your local council and who makes decisions on the provision of local services.
  • You must be registered to be able to vote in the elections. You can apply to register to vote at gov.uk/register-to-vote .
  • The deadline to register to vote is Thursday 13 April.
  • Registering to vote is quick and easy. You’ll just need your National Insurance number, date of birth and address.
  • There are a few ways you can vote once you have registered:
    • In person
    • By post
    • By proxy (someone you trust voting on your behalf)
  • Go to yourvotematters.co.uk or call 0800 3 280 280 for more information.

 

Voter Information

  • The deadline to apply to vote by post is 5pm, Tuesday 18 April. If you would like to vote by post you must already be registered, or have submitted your application to register by the deadline.
  • You can appoint a proxy, someone you trust, to vote on your behalf. Proxy vote applications must be received by 5pm on Tuesday 25 April. You and your proxy must have already registered to vote.
  • If you lose your poll card, you don’t need it to vote, but you will need to contact your council to find out where your polling station is. You can find the contact details for your local council by entering your postcode at yourvotematters.co.uk.

 

For more information, visit the Your Vote Matters website.

Local Elections: Only 3 Months to Go!

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The Local Elections are only 3 months away and we’re still compiling our list of candidates.

If you know someone who’s standing and they aren’t on the list, please urge them to get in touch with us.

We’re drawing up a list of questions to ask the candidates. If you’d like to suggest one then please contact us or Tweet us using #atcnc.

 

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The plan is to create an online questionnaire for all the candidates to complete. We’ll publish these on the run up to election day.

We’re expecting over 100 candidates so we really need to spread them out over a few weeks to make it manageable.

If you’re a member of a local party group then please urge candidates to send us their details and to complete the questionnaire when it’s ready.

We’re particularly interested in finding out who the candidates are in Lisvane as we don’t have any contacts in the area.

Image credit – Juan Seguí Moreno

The Whitchurch and Tongwynlais Conservative Candidates Want Your Views

The Whitchurch and Tongwynlais Conservative candidates have created a survey for residents in the ward to complete.

They would like to hear about what you think of living in the area and the service you get from Cardiff Council.

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Complete the survey

The candidates told me in an email, “[the survey is] the first of a number planned to help us better understand local concerns, opinions and ideas.

“We want to ensure that over the term of the next Council, the residents get the full support of local councillors on local issues and that, if we are elected, we keep ourselves aware of those issues.

“We are not seeking opinions on existing councillors personally, only the process of support, or otherwise, residents get from the Council and what they need for the future.”

The candidates have a Facebook page, which contains four pledges:

  1. Listen to and act on your concerns. You are our neighbours in Whitchurch & Tongwynlais. We live here too.
  2. Proactively work to see footpaths and roads are properly maintained and kept litter free.
  3. Work to see Cardiff’s services reach all the residents who need support and help, effectively and efficiently.
  4. Ensure our local schools receive all the support they need to provide the best education possible for our children.

We’ll be keeping an eye on the campaigns from all the candidates over the next few months and sharing any useful links and information.

Planning Our Coverage of the 2017 Local Elections

Planning Our Coverage of the 2017 Local Elections

I started thinking about next year’s local elections after wrapping up coverage of the recent Assembly election. I wasn’t sure when candidates would be announced so I’ve just been keeping an eye on the party groups’ Twitter accounts for any news.

The first candidate I spotted was Jen Davies, who posted a photo of Llandaff North and had, “Labour Council Candidate for Llandaff North” in her profile. I contacted her and she confirmed she was standing with current councillor Dilwar Ali. This kicked off the process of tracking down the other candidates. There were 97 candidates in 2012 so this may take a while.

My Cardiff North wordmarkIf you’re a local party member or candidate, please use our contact form to get in touch and send us your details.

In previous elections I’ve attended hustings, published profiles and shared campaign leaflets. This will be hard to repeat with the increased number of candidates so I need to think how I can make the process more efficient and ensure the coverage is fair.

With a small number of candidates I was able to build up a relationship with them and they were happy to send me information. I can foresee some candidates not responding if they don’t know the site or don’t see any benefit in engaging with it. I’m hoping to get in touch with local party staff who can encourage them to get involved.

The other issue I can see is members of smaller parties or independent candidates that don’t know about this site or don’t have an online presence.

This is where I need help from readers to share the site and help it get noticed on social media. If you support what we do and would like to be involved, please get in touch.

The most important thing for me is to find out who the candidates are and make this information available to as many people as possible. The next challenge is to find out more about them and why they think they should get your vote.

I’m going to create an online questionnaire for each candidate to complete, which will be published on dedicated candidate pages.

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Do you have any suggestions for questions to ask the candidates?

You can Tweet us with the hashtag #atcnc (Ask The Cardiff North Candidates) or send a question by email.

Local Elections 2017: More Candidates Announced

Local Elections 2017: More Candidates Announced

We’ve created a dedicated page for the ever-growing list of candidates standing for election next year.

Independent Heath councillor Fenella Bowden has confirmed she’s standing for re-election, along with Conservative Rhiwbina councillors Jayne Cowan and Adrian Robson.

Joy Coughlan and David Hamblin are standing in Gabalfa for Labour.

Former AM Jonathan Morgan posted on Twitter that the Whitchurch and Tongwynlais ward will be contested by Mike Phillips, Linda Morgan, Tim Davies and Mike Jones-Pritchard for the Conservatives.

You can subscribe to our blog for more updates and follow us on Twitter.

Local Elections 2017: And They’re Off!

Local Elections 2017: And They’re Off!

With an eye on next year’s local council elections, we’ve had our ear to the ground to find out who the candidates will be.

Jen Davies and Dilwar Ali are the Labour candidates in Llandaff North and they’ve already been knocking doors this weekend!

Over in Whitchurch and Tongwynlais, Maegan Davies-John and Hannah Buckingham are two of the four Labour candidates. Hannah and Maegan have also been out canvassing today. We’re waiting for official confirmation for the other two candidates so stay tuned.

Follow us on Twitter for news as it happens.

 

Local Democracy Week – Being a Councillor

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We’re in the middle of Local Democracy Week and councils all over the country are engaging with communities to help them understand what the role of the council is.

Cardiff Youth Council have produced a video called “Whose City Is This” that describes the different levels of representation we have.

 

The leader of The City of Cardiff Council and Llanishen Councillor, Phil Bale, explains how the council are, “taking the public cabinet on the road” to mark Local Democracy Week. The council have a dedicated page with links to information and tools.

 

The next local council elections are in May 2017 and the process of selecting candidates is already underway.

We’ve already started collating a list of candidates in Cardiff North and we urge local parties and independent candidates to get in touch.

If you’re unsure what a councillor does, there are some videos from the Welsh Government featuring councillors in South Wales talking about their role. The Welsh Local Government Association (WLGA) have a guide for candidates that explains what the role involves and how to become a candidate.

In this video Councillors from local authorities in South Wales – including Rhiwbina Councillor Jayne Cowan – discuss how they got involved in local government, the challenges they have faced and why it is important to have a diverse representation on our Councils.

 

We’ve asked the current Cardiff North Councillors to write for us explaining what their typical week involves and we’ll publish these over the coming weeks.