There are four elections on 7th May in Copeland

The four elections on Thursday 7th May will be:

  1) General Election: vote to pick Copeland's next MP

  2) Mayoral Election: vote to pick Copeland's first directly elected Mayor

  3) Borough council election: vote to pick the members of Copeland Borough Council

  4) Town and Parish elections, including the first election to the new Whitehaven Town Council

All of these elections are important, two are new, and all are hard to call.

And it is not enough to cast the right vote in just one or two elections. For example, if we get a good mayor elected who is committed to reform but the present ruling group retain a big majority on the council, that won't entirely block the ability of the new mayor to improve Copeland but it may limit scope for progress. It would be a disaster if Labour won a two-thirds majority on Copeland Council, although I don't believe that is going to happen.

Before moving to Copeland I was a member of the executive of a "hung" council where no party had a majority. Everything I achieved in that situation required cross-party working in the public interest and not just forcing things through on a party vote. I suspect that whoever becomes Copeland's new mayor is going to need that kind of skill, working with members of both political parties and with Independents.

I would relish that challenge, but the more good people get elected the easier it will be for whoever becomes mayor to work with them, so it extremely important to use your votes wisely in all the elections on 7th May.

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