UK Local Elections 2022

[Conservatopia]

Well it looks like it falls to me to babble about the West of England as usual.

Swindon has a third of its seats up. The last batch (in '21) saw a very strong Tory performance. Labour have underperformed in this area compared to what the demographics might suggest. Swindon is a hole and Labour do well in holes.
The Tories will almost certainly retain their majority.

In Plymouth Labour will be targeting a majority and looking back on the history of this council I would say they certainly have a chance. However Cornwall has really swung towards the Tories in recent years and there isn't really any evidence that's going to stop.

Exeter will be a snooze. Labour will comfortably keep their majority. It will be interesting to see if the Lib Dems can recover somewhat here but seems unlikely whilst Labour are ahead in the polls.

And finally the big one. Somerset has a new unitary authority although essentially the district authorities were merely abolished. The council will use the same boundaries as the old Somerset County Council but with twice the number of councillors.

There has been a lot of anger at the government's decision to abolish the district councils (the One Somerset plan) rather than abolish the county council and restructure the county into two separate authorities (the Stronger Somerset proposal). In the past frustration at local government restructuring has lead to a surge in localist support so whilst most likely a Conservative hold, it will be interesting to see if this leads to seats for minor parties with names like "Taunton and Martock First" and "Market Smellsborough Independents (Fighting for you)".

[Conservatopia]

I do wish the system whereby only a third of councillors are up for election would be abolished.

It makes it hard to boot out rubbish councils.

That being said, I live in a rubbish council, we elect all our seats at once, and yet still the Tories are in power. But that's just testament to how useless the LolDems are.