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Friday 10.05.2019 thedistrictpost.co.uk
Horsham’s only independent newspaper 01403 289709
HORSHAM | BILLINGSHURST | HENFIELD | PULBOROUGH | SOUTHWATER | STEYNING | STORRINGTON
Tories lose 13 seats yet retain control of district Last Friday saw the count for local council elections take place and after the farce of Brexit, ex pectations were low for turnout. Last time local elections were held, the National average turnout was just 35% compared to 72% for the EU referendum. This time out those stats were mirrored in Horsham as once again the public stayed away from aiming to help change their local area. As in previous years the Conservative party managed to hold the majority of council seats, however much like the National results this was at a cost as they lost 13 seats, mainly to a resurgent Liberal Democrats who ended the count holding 13 seats. The Green party were rightfully proud of their achievements as they won their first Horsham District Council seats taking one of the two available in the ward of Steyning and Ashurst with Robert Platt elected and one of the two avaiable in Bramber, Upper Beading and Woodmancote through Michael Croker. Labour failed to make impact in an election that was being widely seen, Nationwide, as a chance to make up ground on the Conserva-
tives however with the District fundamentally being a Conservative stronghold they ended the election with the same number of seats as they started, 0. Brexit aside, the poor turnout may also be attributed to people just not knowing what they were voting for or simply not knowing an election was happening. Polling cards were dropped through thousands of letterboxes alomg with many candidates going door to door or dropping pamphlets through letterboxes so the reminder was there but with a distinct lack of media coverage compared to other elections it was simply just forgotten. So what were you voting for? These elections decided who runs the local authorities. In total there are 343 Councils in England of which 248 had elections held. You were voting for who represents the area you live in at Council level. You may have seen or heard various candidates discussing policy and wondered why they didn’t cover something that you feel needs to be acted upon, that could be because it actually falls out of
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their remit. They look after things like housing, bin collections, school funding, leisure and culture, parking, environmental health, planning, roads and social services. The larger ones
also deal with adult social care and Children’s services. A winning councillor then has his or her seat for four years and together with the other elected councillors decide on implement-
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ing various policies. Next time out it would be great to see more of the public have a say in the issues close to them. Full results on page 2
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