The General Election has been announced for Thursday 6th May 2010. As the Memorial Hall will not be ready then, the Parwich Polling Station will be in the Sycamore Inn, so you can get a coffee or a beer at the same time as you vote.
If you are not already registered to vote you will need to do so by 2oth April in order to participate in this election (click here to find out how to register or to check if you are already registered).
Our local constituency was West Derbyshire, which has been a safe Conservative seat since the 1950s, but is now reformed as Derbyshire Dales which will be contested for the first time in this election. The sitting MP for West Derbyshire is Conservative Chief Whip Patrick McLoughlin, who has held the seat since 1986. In the last election in 2005 there was a 69% turn out with the Conservations polling 48% of the vote (Labour 27%, Liberals 22% and UKIP 3%).
The prospective candidates for Derbyshire Dales are (these are the ones I have found so far, but there may be others):
- Conservative: Rt Hon Patrick McLoughlin
- Green Party: Josh Stockwell
- Labour: Colin Swindell
- Liberal: Joe Naitta
- UKIP: Ian Guiver
PARWICH.ORG will invite responses from the above on local issues, so add comments below saying what you want to know about. (Hopefully these Parliamentary Candidates will be more interested in replying than the European Parliament Candidates were.)
PARWICH.ORG 
There’s a chance to quiz the Derbyshire Dales candidates in person, on Friday 23rd April at 7pm, at St Joseph’s Parish Hall, off Bank Road, Matlock, DE4 3NG.
Click here for full details, including how to book in advance.
It’s worth noting that this event has been organised by a group of voluntary sector organisations, and is being advertised as “What will the future hold for the voluntary sector after the General Election?” However, it does appear to be the only officially announced hustings in our area to date.