Cancelled elections put politics on hold
ALL local, mayoral and police and crime commissioner elections due to take place this year have been postponed for 12 months because of the coronavirus outbreak.
The government said the situation made it impractical to allow voting to go ahead on May 7, because it was likely to coincide with a peak in the spread of the virus.
Hyndburn council also this week began cancelling a raft of public meetings, including the full council meeting which had been scheduled for March 26.
Conservative group leader Coun Tony Dobson said: “I am extremely disappointed that the local elections set to take place in early May have now been cancelled. Of course public health must come before everything but we had such a fantastic campaign planned to highlight the failings of the current controlling group on the back of a fantastic budget, an amazing general election win by Sara
Britcliffe, a promise kept by Boris Johnson to get Brexit done and a famous general election win by the Conservatives!
“All this will have to wait unfortunately until May 2021. The community’s health and well-being is absolutely paramount, I strongly encourage everyone to follow the guidance given by the health and scientific community over these next few days and weeks and wish everyone the very best. We as a set of councillors will be on hand to help as many people as possible during this crisis.”
Police and Crime Commissioner Clive Grunshaw, who was seeking a third term of office, said the postponement of the poll was “the only sensible option”.
He said: “We all need to focus our efforts now on public health and supporting the most vulnerable, not fighting elections.
“My office will continue doing everything we can to ensure that services continue and people are kept as safe as possible.”
His Tory challenger for the post, county councillor Andrew Snowden said: “Whilst it’s hugely disappointing that the election has been cancelled, as we had such a positive plan to make Lancashire safer, people’s health and well-being should always come first.
“There will be huge sighs of relief from the Labour camp - from the PCC down to local councillors - who had been put on notice by voters for simply failing to deliver what communities across Lancashire need. We’ll see them at the ballot box in a year’s time.”
Hyndburn council’s cabinet and communities and wellbeing overview and scrutiny committees, arranged for March 18, were scrapped this week, and the resources overview and scrutiny committee, due to be held on Thursday, March 19 has also fallen by the wayside.