PARWICH.ORG

We are voting for both the European Parliament and Derbyshire County Council elections on the 4th of June.

Those not already registered to vote must do so by 5pm Tuesday 19th May if they want to vote in these elections (click here to find out how to register).

The local polling station is Parwich Memorial Hall which will be open from 7am to 10pm.

The County Council elections are the traditional first past the post system: you pick the candidate you want and the person with the most votes becomes County Councillor for that division.

Also-en-le-Dale, Parwich and much of Pikehall are in the Dovedale Division, where the candidates are:

• James Jennings of Darley Dale, Liberal Democrat
• Simon Spencer of Ashbourne, Conservative
• Colin Swindell of Elton, Labour

(Note: Simon Spencer is also District Councillor, Derbyshire Dales District Council, for the Dovedale & Parwich ward.  The current County Councillor for the Dovedale division, Ray Caswell, is standing down.)

Ballidon is in the Wirksworth Division, where the following candidates are standing:

• Garry Purdy of Cromford, Conservative
• Irene Ratcliffe of Wirksworth, Labour
• Josh Stockwell of Wirksworth, Green Party

(Note: Irene Ratcliffe is the current County Councillor for the Wirksworth Division and also is a County Council nominated member of the Peak District National Park Board.)

For the elections to the European Parliament we are in the East Midland region and the voting process is more complicated:

The East Midlands region, including Derbyshire, is currently represented by six MEPs.

You have one vote to elect all of your MEPs. Each party puts forward a list of candidates (the regional list) and you vote for one of these lists or an independent candidate.

The parties are then allocated a number of MEPs according to their share of the vote.

This means voters do not have a direct say in which individual candidates are elected, only the number of seats allocated to each party.  For those like me who have no idea who the current MEPs for our region are, here is the list:

• Roger Helmer* of Northamptonshire, Conservative
• Robert Kilroy-Silk of Buckinghamshire, Independent
• Glenis Willmott* of Nottinghamshire, Labour
• Christopher Heaton-Harris of Lincolnshire, Conservative
• Derek Clark* of Northampton, UKIP
• Bill Newton Dunn* of Lincolnshire, Liberal Democrat

(*These four are standing for re-election)

Following the up coming elections the East Midlands will be represented by only five MEPs, one less than now.

The following parties all have five candidates each, with no independent candidates listed:

• British National Party
• Christian Party
• Conservative Party
• English Democrats Party
• Jury Team
• Liberal Democrats
• No 2EU: Yes to Democracy
• Pro Democracy: Libertas.eu
• Socialist Labour Party
• The Green Party
• The Labour Party
• United Kingdom First
• United Kingdom Independence Party (UKIP)

Only six of the 80 candidates list a Derbyshire address and none are from the Peak District.  Click here for the names and addresses of all the candidates