Herefordshire election: what is the current state of the parties?

With power currently distributed between six parties and groups (see diagram below), the chances of any one sweeping to outright victory are slim. The current minority Independents for Herefordshire / Greens coalition are not standing against each other, but nor are they standing in all 53 wards.

Meanwhile there is evidence that voters are engaging less with the coalition’s wider vision for the county and more with bread-and-butter issues.

At a meeting organised last week by Herefordshire Wildlife Trust featuring councillors from all parties except the Liberal Democrats and True Independents, council leader and Independents for Herefordshire councillor David Hitchiner admitted that during campaigning, “No one has mentioned the environment, they talk about potholes in the roads, which disappoints me.”

The Greens’ leader in the county Coun Ellie Chowns agreed that “on the doorstep, it has basically been potholes and planning”.

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Coun Kath Hey for Labour pointed out that all parties signed up to the county’s climate emergency declaration in March 2019, two months before the previous council election, and that the council’s work in this area since then “is through that filter”.

And though the meeting showed broad agreement among the parties on the county’s environmental priorities, the question of whether to build a bypass to the west of the city, which the current administration cancelled; to the east, which it favours; or indeed to build both, or neither, remains perhaps the key divide.

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For the Conservatives, who along with the LibDems favour reviving the western bypass plan, Coun Elissa Swinglehurst said: “Either choice will have environmental costs. But if the Lugg Meadows [to the east of the city] are touched, I will lie in front of a bulldozer.”

Polling stations are open from 10am until 7pm. Voters need photographic ID such as a passport or driving licence to vote.

Follow the Hereford Times and @GavinMcEwanLDR for up-to-the-minute coverage as the results are announced on Friday morning.