Medway Local Elections Are Go!Today the candidates for the various political parties (and Independents) standing in the 2007 local elections to contest the 55 seats in Medway's 22 wards have been announced. These include the usual Conservative, Labour and Liberal Democrat candidates (though, interestingly, the LibDems are not contesting 20 of the 55 seats—that's over a third).
There are the usual players, including the handful of British National Party (BNP) candidates that we first encountered last time, back in 2003. Once again the UK Independence Party (UKIP) is standing just one candidate in each of most (but not all) wards, and this time the new Medway Independent Party (MIP) is doing much the same, with a total of 17 candidates. There are also three English Democrats (ED). It all goes to make the campaign more interesting...
The table below shows the number of candidates from each political party/independent who will be standing in each ward, and how many seats there are in each ward. The parties are listed alphabetically, with Independents (and the Independent Group separately) at the right, in order to show no favour:
| Ward Name | Seats | BNP | Con | ED | Lab | LD | MIP | UKIP | Ind Gp | Ind |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| All Wards --> | 55 | 3 | 55 | 3 | 55 | 35 | 17 | 16 | 2 | 6 |
| Chatham Central | 3 | - | 3 | - | 3 | 3 | 1 | - | - | - |
| Cuxton and Halling | 1 | - | 1 | - | 1 | - | 1 | - | - | - |
| Gillingham North | 3 | - | 3 | - | 3 | 3 | - | 1 | - | - |
| Gillingham South | 3 | 1 | 3 | - | 3 | 3 | - | 1 | - | - |
| Hempstead and Wigmore | 2 | - | 2 | - | 2 | 2 | - | 1 | - | 2 |
| Lordswood and Capstone | 2 | - | 2 | 1 | 2 | - | 1 | 1 | - | - |
| Luton and Wayfield | 3 | - | 3 | 1 | 3 | - | 1 | - | - | - |
| Peninsula | 3 | - | 3 | - | 3 | 3 | - | 1 | - | 2 |
| Princes Park | 2 | 1 | 2 | 1 | 2 | - | 2 | - | - | - |
| Rainham Central | 3 | - | 3 | - | 3 | 3 | - | 1 | - | 2 |
| Rainham North | 2 | - | 2 | - | 2 | 2 | 1 | 1 | - | - |
| Rainham South | 3 | - | 3 | - | 3 | 3 | 1 | 1 | - | - |
| River | 2 | - | 2 | - | 2 | 2 | 1 | 1 | - | - |
| Rochester East | 2 | - | 2 | - | 2 | - | 1 | 1 | - | - |
| Rochester South & Horsted | 3 | - | 3 | - | 3 | 3 | 1 | 1 | - | - |
| Rochester West | 2 | - | 2 | - | 2 | - | 2 | 1 | - | - |
| Strood North | 3 | - | 3 | - | 3 | 3 | - | 1 | - | - |
| Strood Rural | 3 | - | 3 | - | 3 | - | 2 | 1 | - | - |
| Strood South | 3 | - | 3 | - | 3 | - | - | - | - | - |
| Twydall | 3 | 1 | 3 | - | 3 | 3 | - | 1 | - | - |
| Walderslade | 2 | - | 2 | - | 2 | - | 1 | 1 | 2 | - |
| Watling | 2 | - | 2 | - | 2 | 2 | 1 | - | - | - |
For information: the present political make-up of Medway Council is as follows: