News | Elections 2018


downsmail.co.uk The big election quandary


WITH just a few weeks until the next tranche of Maidstone Borough Council elections, Simon Finlay wonders where disaffected Ukip voters maymigrate to…


THE great “known unknown” of this May’s borough council elec- tion will be where a possible col- lapse of Ukip’s substantial 2014 votewill end up. Across the 18 seats being fought


across Maidstone on May 3, the Euro-sceptic party picked up more than 25% of the vote on average, winning a brace of seats but more often coming a creditable second place. At the time,Ukipwas riding high


nationally after massive gains across the country in the 2013 county council elections. Butwithout its single issue raison


d’etre (the EU) to rail against and with Nigel Farage gone as leader, Ukip is broke – and looks broken. Since Brexit in 2016, the party has


had a succession of leaders and founditself embroiledin a high pro- file scandal involving one of them, Henry Bolton, who was eventually ditched. And it has started to show in its


national polling, slumping from 18% in 2013 (Guardian/ICM) to 2% inMarch this year (Guardian/ICM). Now that Ukip’s four Maidstone


borough councillors have resigned fromthe party and gathered under the Independents inMaidstone ban- ner, it seems unlikely the party could find enough candidates at this late stage for the 18 available wards. Shepway south’s wily old


stager, JohnBarned, said: “TheUkip problems are filtering down from national to local level but the issues onthe groundhere are still the same. That’swhy I’ve gone independent.” Ukip’s elected members were re-


ceiving almostdaily emails fromthe leadership asking themnot to jump ship, so fearful are they of Thur- rock-style independent breakaway movements across the country. Now it has happened here. Cllr


Barned is contesting his seat while Cllr Simon Ells, in the neighbouring Shepway northward, is not. So where could thousands of


Ukip votes end up? Labour councillor Paul Harper


(Fant) concedes they may shear off in the direction of his party or the Tories but, equally, he believes they will simply “stay at home”. TheLiberalDemocrats are hoping


the latter will be the case, as a sig- nificant proportion of the seats they are defending (such as Maidstone east, Maidstone north and High Street) had Ukip barking at their heels in second place last time round. But they have serving, high-pro-


file councillors such as DerekMor- timer (Maidstone south), Tony Harwood (Maidstone north), James Willis (Heath) and Clive English (High Street)who could prove hard to unseat in spite of the arithmetic possibilities.


For instance, Cllr Harwood has a


strong record on planning issues while Cllr Willis is a visible and vocal campaigner on rail and roads. Few neutral observers really be-


lieve that the Tories can pull it off. Turnout and the postal vote –which would probably favour theConser- vatives –will be key.And as one put it: “If they want to do a number on the Lib Dems, they will have to hammer thosewards day andnight. And they’ll have to out-smart the


Where the seats on MBC lie


The current make up of Maid- stone Borough Council is:


Conservative – 22 Liberal Democrat – 22 Independents –5 Ukip –4 Labour – 2


Lib Dems, and that isn’t easy, ei- ther.” Depending on which activist one


speaks to, the Tories either think there are enough winnable seats to wrest back control of MBC – cur- rently a LibDem/others alliance – or it is just not possible in this tranche of seats. Shepway north, Bridge, Coxheath & Hunton, Maidstone east, Heath and Maidstone south keep coming up as among the defi- nite targets for the Conservatives. But there are certain seats, says one activist,which “we’re going to fight likemad for”. Cllr Harper said Labour will be


looking at Maidstone north, Shep- waysouth,ParkWoodandShepway north to causeupsets, aswell aspost improved results across the slate. But Cllr Barned, himself a former


Conservative, warns: “It’ll be an in- teresting election.Could be close. “The Tories are hoping to make


gains but I havemy suspicions they won’t.”


‘Modal shift? You are kidding!’


A FORMER Ukipper turned Torywho fancies his chances of knocking Lib DemDerekMor- timer aside inMaidstone south believes traffic issues in the county town have become intoler- able – and are only set to getworse. But Paul Wooding (59), a straight-talking


RoyalMail driver and former serviceman, re- serves his derision for Local Plan architects’ “modal shift” policy of encouraging transport other than cars to dealwith the traffic fromthe massive expansion in housing taking place across the borough. “Who are they kidding?” he cries. “It’s like


asking my 13-year-old son to get off his Xbox and play hopscotch outside on the pavement. Crazy.” For him, a four phase ring road is needed for


Tory hopeful PaulWooding Picture: AmyMartin 20 Maidstone East April 2018


Maidstone startingwith the Leeds-Langley re- lief road. “I amonthe roads inmy job and I see it every day. The roads can’t cope as it is and there


could be another 30,000 cars before too long. And they’d expect us to walk or ride a bike to work?” CllrMortimer, who is a founder member of


the transport lobbying group SMART, knows only toowell hisward residents’ travails on the roads. And while he supports a relief road linking


theA2674 and theA20 (M20), he adds “there’s no money for that scheme” and doubts it will happen. The semi-retired businessman and father of


three grown-up children acknowledges park- ing is a “major” issue but feels his party should get credit for promoting green spaces for recre- ation. In 2014, CllrMortimer took 41% of the vote


ahead of the Tories (27%). Where the 23% who voted Ukip might go is


whatmight swing it forMrWooding, say local observers.


downsmail.co.uk


Elections 2018 |News


Tax rise will ease strain on council


MAIDSTONE Borough Council has voted to raise the cost of coun- cil tax by 3%. Liberal Democrat council leader


Cllr Fran Wilson said that after some years of severe austerity measures imposed by central gov- ernment, formerly strict rules about increases had been relaxed. A3%levy is nowthe upper limit


that local authorities can impose on rate-payers. The rise will maintain services


and allow the council to have an adequate but not excessive surplus. Cllr Wilson said: “Over recent


years government cuts to local au- thority funding have been very deep and there is no longer any fat to trim. “We, like themajority of councils


of various political colours, have had to weigh an increases in coun- cil tax against the loss of major public services and, like themajor- ity of councils includingConserva-


tive controlled Kent County Coun- cil, we have reluctantly had to in- crease council tax bymore thanwe would have in other circum- stances.” The Tories tried to peg the in-


crease to just 2% to safeguard the homeless and improve air quality. Conservative leader Cllr John


Perry said: “This year’s budget doesn’t provide the best value for money for residents. “It is clear that there is no differ-


ence between a Labour, LiberalDe- mocrat or an independent councillor.” Deputy leader of the Lib Dem


groupMartin Cox added: “The al- ternative lower council tax increase proposed by theConservativeswas essentially


unfunded and


amounted to a short-term fix that would actually make matters sub- stantiallyworse in future years.” The Tory amendment was re- jected by full council onMarch 7.


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Labour’s election hopefuls


MAIDSTONE Labour Party has selected all its candidates for the May 2018 Maidstone Borough Council elections. Labour leader and member for


Fant, Paul Harper, said: “We have successfullyworkedwith the inde- pendent group to hold the balance


Allington –Marianna Poliszczuk Bearsted – JimGrogan Boxley – RichardAtkins Bridge – Bruce Heald Coxheath andHunton –Madeline Darby East – Joanna Burns Fant – Cllr Paul Harper Harrietsham and Lenham – Greg Levitt Headcorn – Geoff Harvey


BOROUGH councillors have agreed to support voting at 16. Theywillwrite to the PrimeMin-


ister asking for the age to be low- eredby two years.LiberalDemocrat Cllr Brian Clark stated that 16-year- olds can join the army,marry, have children, pay taxes and set up their


of power between the Tories and Liberal Democrats to make the council focus on the needs and best interests of its communities and residents.” The full list of candidates is as


follows in the 18wards up for elec- tion:


Heath – Ben Crozier High Street – Timothy Licence Marden and Yalding – Richard Coates North –Maureen Cleator ParkWood – DanielWilkinson Shepway north – Chris Jeery Shepway south –MalcolmMcKay South –Wendy Hollands Staplehurst – Stella Marlyn Ran- dall


Support for lower voting age


own businesses–butnotvote. At full council onMarch 7, Conser-


vativeleader JohnPerrysaidheagreed withtheprincipleof ayoungervoting age but said some 16-year-olds have not developed “fiscal responsibil- ity”. Comment, page 46


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