44 years on the last Merseyside County Council 

election still causes the odd rumble/grumble

Social media outlets can often be strange places where people just say what they’re thinking, sometimes without any filter or indeed knowledge of what on earth they are talking/upset about. This is particularly a thing with social media community groups I find.

In the lead up to this May’s local elections I saw postings raising concerns and offering some odd all but conspiracy-type theories regarding why there were no local elections in Sefton Borough/on Merseyside this year.

In fact we’ve not had local elections one in every 4 years on Merseyside since our County Council was abolished back in the Thatcher era. The last County election* was as long ago as May 1981. That’s some 44 years!

Here’s a link to a Wikipedia page which tells the story of the rise, fall and short 12 year life of Merseyside County Council - created 1974, abolished 1986:-

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Merseyside_County_Council

OK, I was involved in local politics on Merseyside for 40 years so like any other politician, of all political colours, I know why the Boroughs of Merseyside** have 3 consecutive years of local elections and then one with none and that this electoral cycle has been embedded for a very, very long time now. On that basis why have a few voters cried foul in May 2025, asked why they’ve not had polling cards, even pondered on who may have put the brake on their local elections? Do they have such thoughts every 4 Merseyside years I wonder?

My first ever local election campaign was actually the very last set of Merseyside County Council elections of May 1981 where my good Liberal friend Jack Parkin was the candidate in the oddly named West Lancs No.3 Ward. Odd in that the ward was not in West Lancs at all and had actually been removed from West Lancs Rural District back in 1974 when local government had been reorganised. I recall that the ward was actually referred to as Maghull South, West & Melling. That Jack came pretty close to winning from a standing start has long been a fond political memory of mine.

Electoral graphic - Wikipedia

 

But turning back from my personal nerdy election memories to the reason for 2025 being ‘fallow’, in local election terms, on Merseyside. When it was explained on social media, by me and indeed others as to why we have no elections this year I got the distinct impression that some folks still seemed to cling to something being wrong even to the point of thinking that their right to vote may have been removed from them.

When you consider that only around one third of voters, or even less, actually usually vote in local elections (and only two thirds in General Elections) that means the Apathy Party actually tops the poll at pretty much every local election, so why the cries of foul when a quite legitimate ‘fallow’ year, in terms of local elections, comes around?

As a parting aside, I recall how difficult it was in my campaigning days to get people to vote in local elections, so the irony of some folks protesting about how their ‘opportunity’ (there wasn’t one) to vote in May 2025 was ‘taken away from them’ by forces unknown is not lost on me.

* Merseyside County Council was abolished in 1986

** Liverpool, Sefton, Knowsley & Wirral & St. Helens