Is anybody voting Conservative tomorrow?

I must confess you'd have thought it a good reason to vote Green.

 

It wasn't. I work with the Tory candidate who was up for election in that ward. He lost on a coin toss.

As an aside, I like him a lot, but I can't talk about politics with him as I become murderous.

 

Apologies, I was talking about the last one, not last night

 

Perhaps you could form the 'NIMBY' party then. I m sure it would attract votes from rural community dwellers trying to stem the tide of newcomers.
On a more serious note There are plenty of brownfield sites and areas that could be redeveloped rather than virgin countryside but developers seem to prefer to attract people by building expensive properties on estates where there is little infrastructure no schools surgeries shops etc. Redeveloping/revitalising town centres using unoccupied excess capacity retail outlets and turning them into apartments/ housing etc whilst retaining amenities like bars restaurants cinema and local food outlets surely makes more sense.

 

Green. All the way.

 

That doesn’t make sense as a response to what I’m actually saying.

 

Words fail me.

If you're upset with Labour I get it. But why vote Tory?

Unless you like to starve children.

 

To be fair to DB, i'm from that area and it has got so busy over the past few years. They build all these houses but don't build additional schools or GP surgeries. It isn't sustainable in that area as it stands.

 

Voted for an independent in my ward yesterday for the first time - Liam Hardcastle. Fella gives up his time to organise litter picks, plant green spaces, report & fix fly tipping & actually sort stuff.

I got a letter from the Labour councillors the other week claiming all these successes in my ward - from the above to banning HMOs - and all were actually all driven by residents. That pissed me off & I think people who visibly get off their arse to support their community should be rewarded.

 

And queuing for 15 hours in a soon to be defunct NHS hospital

 

Tories gain a councillor in Barnsley, gain three in Hartlepool.

Words fail me. I will never understand the logic of people voting Tory in working class northern areas. The odd individual yeah, there’s always going to be some selfish folk with money. But enough to win an election? The mind boggles about some people. In Barnsley I fear it’s ‘not in my back yard’ syndrome. Jobs are desperately needed but not if you build anything near my house….

Labour lost Hull council too - to the Lib Dems in fairness.

 

The council elections are always difficult to assess because of generally low/v low turnouts. But I agree. Brexit has opened a schism where significant numbers of the electorate have identified that they value some of the hateful things that this populist/far right brand of alleged conservatism bring. And in recently switching, I fear they've found their true political home. Even if it makes no sense, doesn't serve them well and actually hinders their ability to live their lives.

The country seems to be flipping. The north becoming bluer, the south shifting to not being blue. If we're to get rid of this disastrous govt, we're likely going to have to hope Labour can be strong in Wales and gain some ground in Scotland while retaining as much of the north as possible, while the lib dems pick up seats in tory heartlands and labour sweep more london boroughs.

 

Is this development being paid for by the last of the EU grants?

 

When you look at the tory and ukip votes at the last GE, I'm actually pretty pleased it's only one extra tory councillor for Barnsley. I fear for what the next GE will deliver with ukip having fallen off a cliff. Though it wouldn't surprise me in the slightest if that nutjob Fox won a northern seat next time round.

 

I had two votes, so ended splitting them with green and lib dem. Southwark is still Labour, so it didn't make any odds though my ward results haven't come through yet, but I suspect the woman councillor who last time knocked on my door 3 times telling me she'd "work hard" as the reason for electing her, and since then seems to have tried her best to disprove that notion.. is still with a job.

Same here though in terms of visibility. Pre 2018, there was more Lib Dem presence and they were frequent posters on the local forum to deal with issues as they were flagged. Very impressive and widely appreciated. But for whatever reason Labour swept the board in 2018.

Since then they took away street bins, so the level of litter has rocketed, the local park by me was butchered during nesting season last year, plans were approved for the hedge fund owners of the local football club to build a new ground on open metropolitan land (which isn't legal) and some of the planning consents granted are extremely poor, largely breaching the councils own environmental pledges.

 

There's both. Have a look at the Hoyland North and South Masterplans.

 

The Tory candidate (Dave White) has been very vocal and proactive with his campaign. Mostly agreeing wholeheartedly with those opposed to the developments and feeding them with info, photos, and drone shots of the building sites on Facebook. The residents have accused the council and local councillors of ‘not listening’ - basically the request being ‘we don’t want if, don’t build it’. The most vocal seem to be residents of Sheffield Road and Tankersley Lane who previously had a semi-rural view. They’ve continued to blast the Council for the developments instead of focusing their efforts on forcing more conditions to planning applications in order to try and mitigate the impact. Mr White is strongly opposed to it all, and even more strongly opposed to the council planning process where 7 cabinet members make all the decisions.

The Labour councillor appears to have done very little to try and balance the argument, and was already further down the pecking order for voting to approve the masterplans in the first place.

That’s why he won. Not because he’s a conservative councillor. Mr Blobby would probably get someone’s vote if they appear to be the ‘only’ voice of the people.

 

A lot of the land up there is privately owned and is being developed independently as part of the masterplans. Harworth have a large chunk of the ex-colliery land.

I’m not sure where the funding for Hoyland West has come from, but that can probably be found out.