Voters across Cumbria headed to the polls on Thursday to elect Cumbria’s new police, fire and crime commissioner with a turnout of just 21% of those eligible to vote using their vote on Thursday with 79% of voters across Cumbria opting not to vote.
Elections for a number of town and parish councils in Cumbria were also taking place including the Penrith West Town council by election that was one of the few to actually have an election with four candidates contesting the seat but only getting a 20% turnout with just 447 of the eligible 2232 voters turning out to cast a vote with 1785 voters not using their vote.
In Cumberland none of the parish councils due for elections on Thursday had an actual election or a single vote cast as to few candidates came forward with the same situation in Westmorland and Furness for council due elections with just Ulverston town council and Staveley-in-Cartmel Parish council having more candidates than seats resulting in an election.
Some seats up for election and even some parish council in Cumbria received no candidates at all throwing the future of those parish councils involved into question as councils require a set number of councillors in order to be able to function and operate legally.
Sockbridge and Tirril parish council just south of Penrith faced the same situation last May when no candidates submitted nominations throwing the council into limbo until a fresh selection was called with four individuals stepping forward to ensure the parish council could function.
Penrith town council historically had a number of permanently
empty seats resulting in the councils reducing the number of seats in 2019 to
15 councillors.
The lack of candidates standing in elections and the low levels of voter turnout is causing concern across the political spectrum Colin May, who is member of the local party for Cumbria ‘Putting Cumbria First’, has raised concern about local democratic process.
Mr May said “The low levels of voter turnout across Cumbria in those elections that have taken place, coupled with the low levels of candidates coming forward in elections - especially in town and parish councils - shows the serious risk that faces our democracy.”
“The fact that many voters never get the opportunity to vote in town and parish councils due to the high numbers of uncontested seats and in many cases low numbers of candidates and even - in the case of some parish councils in Cumbria - no candidates, or too few for the councils to even function, is a serious situation that needs a lot more focus not just locally but nationally.”
“The last few elections across Cumbria have shown a serious lack of voter turnout. In some cases, as low as 10-12 per cent of those registered to vote have bothered to put a mark on a ballot paper to vote in elections that have been contested.”
“The situation is something of a chicken and egg one. If few people step up to be candidates, voters have no real choice in contested elections, and no choice if the election is uncontested, meaning that someone can be elected without a single vote cast for them.
"The growing trend of the lack of candidates in all elections and decline in numbers voting puts not just democracy at risk for everyone but locally puts at risk the grassroots local town and parish councils that work to support their local communities as volunteers.”
"Very few town and parish councillors receive any payments for the role they do to support their local communities.”
“How can we fix the situation? That will take everyone taking ownership of our democracy and a national conversation about what has gone wrong and how we can fix it.”
Penrith and Eden area has had low number of candidates standing in elections for decades and voter turnout has plummeted over the last decade in the area.
The former Eden Council prior to 2019 had a large number of councillors who never had a single vote cast for them by voters due to them been the only candidate standing in the ward for Eden Council the same has happened in Penrith with the town council with most of the wards uncontested at elections resulting in the only candidates stepping up been elected by default as the only candidate.
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