Having gone through the "why am I doing this..?" phase a few evenings ago, it is a much nicer feeling being where I am this evening. The nomination process is out of the way, I'm up and running and now thinking about the campaign.
Looking back, getting nominated for the Town/Parish Council is also a reasonably easy process, just daunting when you embark on it for the first time.
There was no deposit to find and only two signatures are needed from people who live in the ward, plus their electoral registration numbers. I managed to find people who were happy to nominate me without having to knock on any doors, social networking can help here, and the electoral registration numbers proved ridiculously easy, requiring only a quick visit to the Town Council Offices.
So if I can do it anybody can do it.
Which is more than just an observation, it is a plea.
Too many elections for Hedge End Town Council have been allowed to go uncontested in recent years. That is not healthy for local democracy. We need election campaigns to help bring local issues to the fore, to challenge the existing Councillors and kick them out of their comfort zone. We need contests between candidates from opposing parties and independents like me.
We need ballots to take place instead of allowing Lib Dems to co-opt other Lib Dems.
We've certainly got to stop Lib Dem Councillors from being returned by default, because nobody can be bothered to challenge them...
