With less than 48 hours to go until the General, Borough and Parish Council elections here is a reminder of your options on Thursday, 7th May, if you are still undecided.
Electors have a choice of five candidates when they go to the polls for the General Election.
Candidates for the election of a Member of Parliament for the Tatton Constituency are: Stuart Hutton (UKIP), George Osborne (Conservative Party), David Pinto-Duschinsky (Labour Party), Tina Rothery (Green Party) and Gareth Wilson (Liberal Democrats).
If you click on the General Election tag below you will be able to read the statements provided by each of the five candidates.
Two candidates are standing to represent the Alderley Edge Ward on Cheshire East Council. These are Craig Browne (AlderleyEdgeFirst) and Frank Keegan (Conservative Party). Both candidates are standing for the Parish Council election as well.
Perhaps most exciting of all though, it has certainly generated the most interest and debate, Alderley Edge residents will also have the opportunity to elect all nine councillors for Alderley Edge Parish Council on Thursday, 7th May.
Four years ago the nine Conservatives were unopposed so there was no election, but this time residents will have the choice of eighteen people to fill the nine seats - AlderleyEdgeFirst have put forward nine candidates to challenge the nine representatives of the Conservative Party.
Click on the Alderley Edge Parish Council Election tag below to read the interviews with the 17 of the 18 candidates who responded to my request.
Alternatively you can search for Parish Council candidates via the AlderleyEdgeFIRST and Conservative Party tags.
I hope you have found my election coverage useful. Good luck to all the candidates who are standing.
Polling stations will be open from 7am to 10pm on Thursday, 7th May.
The count for the General Election will take place overnight on Thursday with the result expected to be announced about 6am on Friday 8th May. The count for the Borough Elections will take place on Friday, starting at 3pm and the count for the Parish Council election will take place at 3pm on Saturday 9th May.
I will be attending the counts and publishing the results as soon as I can.
Comments
Here's what readers have had to say so far. Why not add your thoughts below.
On behalf of all of the Candidates from AlderleyEdgeFIRST and all of our Support Team may I say a big thank you to you for the very professional way in which alderleyedge.com presents the issues and the comments. It is no easy task and it involves a huge commitment from you.
It is all appreciated very much.
Thank You!
Good Luck to all candidates. David Hadfield
Even though I have emailed you directly to express my admiration and appreciation for all the hard work you've put in, as a regular commentator on this site I think it only right that I reiterate this publicly. So thank you. You've done an amazing job. I look forward to you publishing the results of the elections and will keep my eyes peeled for your announcements!
Roll on election day it's certainly going to interesting in all the elections taking place.
It has been very interesting following and occasionally contributing to the debate. Thank you for hosting the lively discussions.
May the best candidates win, though understandably I hope that it will be the present Conservative team!
Kind regards
Sue
We all know this is blatantly untrue and if this assertion were posted on this site, for example, it would be shot down in flames. However, the challenge to counter untruths that are being delivered on people's doorsteps in order to win support, no matter how unethically, is an entirely different matter.
Of course, the canvassers in question are likely to deny that they have been saying this and it is, frustratingly, their word against mine (or that of my neighbour) anyway, so I am left with the option of presenting a hypothetical scenario, which we can respond to on this site, for the benefit of any other residents who read this site and may have received a similar visit to that of my neighbour.
To avoid any confusion or ambiguity, regardless of who is voted onto our Parish Council on Thursday, the new Medical Centre will be completed and the Festival Hall will be refurbished. The wheels are on motion, momentum has gathered and no one can stop the train now.
If any residents are left in any doubt about this, could I ask you to consider why the Conservative Parish Councillors and their supporters have not made this claim either in their published leaflets or on this website? It would, if true, be a most compelling argument in favour of keeping the current council in place. But it is not true.
Like you, I have heard from a friend that a team of Conservative canvassers were knocking doors on the Bollin Fields estate yesterday evening and a resident was told something similar.
I would appeal to any of the Conservative candidates who engage actively on this forum to either support (and explain) the claim or tell us that their colleague has gone "freelance" in his thinking (it was a "he") and apologise for his dishonesty.
As far as I understand that situation, the Medical Centre will happen come what may.
Alderley EdgeFIRST are absolutely 100 per cent behind the project and have openly promised that, if elected, they will ensure that it is delivered.
If there were any truth in what they were saying it would surely have been in the interviews given to Lisa and posted on the site. Or discussed in the many comments on this site. I have see nothing from any candidate that suggests that this is their view. It seems to me that it is accepted that the Medical Centre / Festival Hall project will go ahead regardless of the outcome tomorrow.
It does occur to me though that there is one Conservative candidate who has not given an interview or commented on the site. So what he thinks on the subject is unknown. Frankly, he could say any rubbish on the doorstep and later deny it.
A very well led and unbiased set of articles and interviews,well done!!
Alan,
Very nice to see someone using the correct name for the Bollin Fields Estate,rather than some of the more usual terms.
When the first few houses were built and my grandparents moved in during the war Oakfield Rd was calld Bollin Fields Road,before the rest of the estate was built.
It smacks of desperation on the Conservative side.
I'm glad this only comes every 5 years!
To discover at this late point in the proceedings that certain Conservative representatives have been going door-to-door, deliberately misrepresenting the facts in a desperate attempt to win votes, is just beyond the pale. And that's before we even consider the legal implications of such actions.
If I hadn't had a conversation with my neighbour, I would remain unaware of these underhand tactics as, indeed, would anyone reading this post. There is a possibility that those people who were told these untruths (and who know how many?) may not follow the discussions on alderleyedge.com and may therefore believe what they had been told. If they vote Conservative, on the basis of the false information they were provided with, then that is a shameful state of affairs.
In my opinion, this illustrates perfectly why this village needs a new Parish Council. Vote for AlderleyEdgeFIRST.
It seems to me that no one can substantiate, or refute, what was said between two people in a discussion unless you were there so lets quash these idiotic scaremongering stories.
Name Names if anyone is so sure of their facts, otherwise, keep the rumours to yourself.
Desperate indeed...
Alan Jones, who used to be on AEPC and I understand is leading this year's conservative campaign stood on my doorstep last night and told me that NHSE were nervous about a change in the Parish Council and may well withdraw from the agreement if AlderleyEdgeFIRST was voted in. Would I like Keegan to come & explain further? No thank you, I said.
A friend of ours who lives on Sutton Road also told us Keegan said it to him in even blunter terms.
So, not 'idiotic scaremongering stories'. Keep your half-formed opinions to yourself.
I know it is very hard when facts get in the way of your world view. You have my sympathies. Maybe now it is time to stop disbelieving and dispelling the facts and start to change your world view.
You are missing an opportunity to get stuck into some conflicts of interest over on the Chorley Hall Lane string.
There has been the usual cut and thrust during this campaign with both sides acting, for the most part, in an honourable and dignified manner.
That a Conservative candidate has been found to be blatantly lying in the manner described is beyond the pale, and brings discredit on the PC and indeed The Conservative party.
Even at this late hour I think it would be right and proper for at least one Conservative candidate to do the decent thing and disassociate him/herself from this reprehensible piece of politicking.
I recently posted this on Duncan Herald's interview.
Duncan Herald, Elly Herald and Martin Hallam
Do these words ring any bells with you?
"Whilst we would of course serve the village without self-interest we would always be an advocate for the issues that face our road."
I took Jane Hallam's advice and today went to look at the problems on Horseshow Lane. Interestingly I came across a computer printed letter from the three of you to your neighbours with your pictures and signed by the three of you.
It also says; "Recently, yellow lines were installed on Lynton Lane, meaning that the road is no longer one way during peak hours. It was one of your neighbours, Duncan Herald, a member of the current Conservative PC who was able to secure their installation."
I am assuming everyone on Horseshoe Lane and probably Lynton Lane got one of these through their letterbox.
Here's to change from the past and moving on to that better solution.
Honk Honk!
From one of the three AE1st Mikes .
Deciding to make a change by placing your trust in us is not easy especially as we are new and perhaps 'untried'. Despite that you gave us your full support and we can only hope that we have done enough - together- to make some bright, fresh and exciting things happen in this great place.
If we have not done enough, we will console ourselves with the fact that so many hundreds of you have felt that the way we want our Parish Council to behave needs changing very quickly.
If we are not able to run with this 'baton' for you we hope that our opposition will take it from us and run as hard with it as we would have done.
We wish you and them well.