Vote...

So, I voted.  I opted for the independent candidate.  If labour hold our council next year we're going to lose Gypsies Green, it's the only athletics facility in town and what's more it's mainly grassy so it fits seamlessly into the coast line.  Last year the Labour council did a secret agreement with a hotel group.  By the time anyone in the town found out they were going to sell the green it had all been organised.  A three storey hotel that will be an eyesore on a previously unspoiled stretch of coast line. No one in town wants it but at the council meeting to discuss objections the independent councillors who spoke up against it were literally shouted down, being told to "shut up and get out" by the Labour majority councillors. If Labour hold the council we can say goodbye to our last athletic facility and also an area of coastline that is one of the few things the town has going for it. 

I'm hopeful that enough people in the town care about the seafront to vote against their party loyalties. 

I'm doubtful that enough people in the town care about the seafront to vote against their party loyalties. 

I still entirely despair of our democracy, it's badly broken and in most cases the real issues are obscured by party politics so that it's made impossible to vote on principle because you know your vote won't count.

(For anyone who's ran or watched the Great North Run, when you cross the finish line, immediately in front of you is a little dip containing a running track and a football field.  It has a few seats but they're around the grassy bowl bit so they don't intrude on the view.  That is what we stand to lose in favour of a very big hotel that is neither needed or wanted.  It also has some historical significance in that Muhammed Ali sparred there and Evel Kenevil jumped there.)