Elections in 2012
There will be District Council elections in some wards of North Hertfordshire on Thursday, 3 May 2012. The wards in this constituency where there will be elections are: Baldock East, Baldock Town, Letchworth South East, Letchworth South West and Letchworth Grange.
None of the seats for election is held by a Labour councillor. David Kearns is one of the sitting councillors for Grange, but the seat for re-election is held by a Conservative. There is more information about North Herts District Council on the local government page.
There is no election in East Hertfordshire. More information on the loacal government page.
Police Commissioner
There will be an election for a Police Commissioner for Hertfordshire on Thursday, 15 November 2012. This is an unnecessary and costly election for which taxpayers will have to pay. Furthermore, it carries the danger of politicising the police. It is particularly outrageous that money is being spent on this when the number of police officers is being cut.
27 January 2012
Elections in 2011
There were elections for North Herts District Council and for East Herts District Council, as well as elections for town and parish councils, on Thursday, 5 May 2011.
North Herts District Council
In North Herts elections .jpg)
are on a rolling cycle - see Local
Government
for more information. The Labour statement of policy for North
Hertfordshire, which appeared in all election addresses is here.
There were 10 seats up for election within the constituency. With the exception of the Ermine ward, there was a Labour candidate in all of them. In all, 3,946 voters, over one in five, voted Labour, ahead of the Liberatl Democrats on 3,047.
Cllr. David Kearns (above right) successfully defended his seat in Letchworth Grange ward. You can read his personal statement here. The other wards in which there are elections were not previously held by Labour.
Ramesh Summan (below
left) stood for Letchworth South East and gained 
633 votes, well ahead of the Liberal Democrat,
but the Conservative candidate
was elected. Ramesh's
personal statement is here.
Tom Brownlee (right), the candidate for Baldock Town, also came second, well ahead of the Liberal Democrat and the Green Party candidate. His statement is here.
The full list of Labour candidates is here.
Les Baker (left), who stood for Royston Palace ward, says that there are more cuts to come. The text of a press release issued before the election is here.
This also gives more information about the Royston candidates.
The full results are on the North Herts District Council website.
East Herts District Council
In East Herts elections take place every four years and all council seats were up for election this year.
The Tory administration in East Herts has an unenviable reputation for wasting public money and for paying its councillors high allowances. For the last few years there have been no Labour councillors to challenge them.
Unfortunately, this has not changed. Although Labour improved its showing compared with 2007, there remain no Labour councillors on the District Council. In fact, the situation on the council has got worse, because the Tories gained three seats from the Liberal Democrats and two from Independents. This leaves an "opposition" to the 46 Tories of only two Liberal Democrats and two Independents.
Ten of the wards, with 11 seats, are in this constituency. There was a Labour candidate in all of them. 2,011 voters voted Labour, 19% of the total. There were no Liberal Democrat candidates, except in Little Hadham. All the other wards were a straight fight between Labour and the Conservatives, except Buntingford, with two independent candidates, and Walkern, with one independent. The list of Labour candidates is here.
You can read Labour's manifesto for East Herts here.
Note: the manifesto quotes a figure of 35% for household waste recycling in East Herts. This figure was the latest available on the DEFRA website at the time when the manifesto was written. The more recent figure now shown (May 2011) is 41%. East Herts has progressed more quickly than some authorities, but it remains some way behind the best, who recycle over half as much more.
The full election results are on the East Herts District Council website.
There is more information on the East Herts District Labour Party website: click here.
Referendum on voting system
Also on 5 May 2011, there was a referendum on whether or not to adopt the alternative vote system instead of the present first-past-the-post system. The Labour Party was not registered to campaign on the referendum and this website did not contain or reference any campaigning material.
The Electoral Register
If you are not already on the register, you can register at any time.
How electoral registration works
A new register is compiled in the autumn of each year. A registration form is sent to each household by the District Council and must be completed and returned. If you do not do this, you will not be on the register, even if you were on it before or even if you are paying council tax to the District Council.
The new register was published at the beginning of the year. You can check that you are on it at public libraries, at the Council Offices or you could email us, giving your full name and address.
During the year, if you are not on the electoral register, you can apply to be put on to it. This is called the "rolling register". You can get more information and download the form from your District Council's website.
Apart from your right to vote, you may find it difficult to obtain credit if you are not on the register. It is usually the first thing that lenders check.
Postal and Proxy Voting
You can choose to have a postal vote, either for a specific election or permanently. You do not have to explain your reason for wanting to vote by post. Go to your District Council's website or download from the links below.
In certain circumstances someone else can vote for you (proxy vote). If you live in East Hertfordshire, you can get more information from your District Council's website. If you live in North Hertfordshire you need to telephone your District Council on 01462 474000.
More information
For more information, click on the appropriate link below to go to your District Council website or download the appropriate form from the links below:
General Election 2010
"We fought a good campaign in North East Hertfordshire," says David Kirkman. "I was selected as the candidate only in autumn 2009, and I did not have enough time to do all that I would have wished. I enjoyed working with the Labour Party in North East Hertfordshire. We co-ordinated my campaign with the local election campaign. So, it was gratifying that our two sitting councillors, who were up for re-election in Letchworth Garden City, retained their seats."
Parliamentary candidate for 2010, David Kirkman (left), with the Constituency Chair, Clyde Millard
"We had a number of problems to contend with," said Clyde Millard, who chairs the constituency Labour Party. "Our previous candidate resigned because of a conflict of interest with his role at the Primary Care Trust. So, David Kirkman was selected very late. In addition, boundary changes added new areas to the constituency which are likely to have increased the Tory vote.
"Nevertheless, it was disappointing to be pushed into third place behind the Liberal Democrats. The "Clegg bubble" may not have had the expected effect in the country as a whole, but it seems to have made a difference in Hertfordshire, where the Liberal Democrats did well even in seats previously held by Labour. But I have no doubt that this bubble will burst quite soon."
The result
The voters of North East Hertfordshire - or rather the 70% of them who voted - have spoken and the result was:
Oliver Heald (Conservative)
26995 (53.5%)
Hugh Annand (Liberal Democrat) 11801 (23.4%)
David Kirkman (Labour) 8291 (16.4%)
Adrianne Smyth (UKIP) 2075 (4.1%)
Rosemary Bland (Green) 875 (1.7%)
There were three other candidates who between them polled 388 votes (0.8%).
This is the first time since the formation of the constituency that the Conservatives have had an overall majority of the vote, having increased their share of the vote by 6.3 percentage points.
North Herts District Council Elections
Within this constituency, two Labour councillors were standing for re-election according to the three year-cycle of elections used by the Council: Lorna Kercher in Letchworth East and Gary Grindal in Letchworth Wilbury. They both retained their seats.
Elsewhere in the District Labour lost one seat to the Liberal Democrats.
Details of the three Labour councillors in this constituency are here and more information on Labour policies for North Hertfordshire is here.
Six other wards within the constituency had elections, but none of these changed hands.
Full results are on the North Hertfordshire District Council's
website.
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