Litter and potholes are key issues ahead of polling day
CANDIDATES APPEAL TO VOTERS AS BALLOT APPROACHES
He said: “We always wanted to develop it and we’ve finally started that, then Carillion came about and knocked the wind out of the sails of many local authorities. Fortunately we were out of the ground with the first building and it was water and air-tight.”
The Liberal Democrats will be hoping to build on 2017’s Sandhill by-election victory and February’s win to take the Pallion seat of late council leader Coun Paul Watson, who died in November.
The party has chosen not to join Labour, the Conservative Party and the Green Party in contesting all 25 seats up for grabs.
Despite their party getting the blame for austerity policies which have forced councils across the country to cut services, Conservative Party candidates hope a focus on local issues will reap rewards.
Sunderland’s Conservative leader Coun Robert Oliver said: “Unemployment in the North East is at a low and Sunderland’s economy is the sixth-fastest growing in the country – the Conservative Party has a good story to tell.”
The Green Party meanwhile says it hopes to bring a ‘different approach’ to council business, with more collaborative working.
Green candidate for Hendon ward Richard Bradley said: “I have ambitions [for Sunderland] and I will never achieve those by standing in the council chamber and criticising.”
However, one party that will have no chance of changing Sunderland after polling day is UKIP, which despite finishing runner-up in most wards at the 2016 local elections in Sunderland has not entered a single candidate this time around.
Visit www.sunderland. gov.uk/elections to find out more about the upcoming elections and how to vote.
WehavebeenaskedtoclarifythatwhileLynnApplebywill remain the Liberal Democrat candidate on the ballot paper for Sandhill ward, she remainssuspendedbytheparty pending the outcome of an investigation into allegations she shared offensive posts on social media.
A spokesman for the Liberal Democrats said: “Lynn Appleby was added to the ballot before she was suspended from the party. Under electoral law we are unable to remove her name from it. The disciplinary hearing and the Party Constitution on the composition of Recognised Council Groups will determine what happens in the longer term.”