Gloves are off as East Lindsey goes to the polls

Every district in Lincolnshire is up for elections today but seats for Spilsby are uncontested.

This means 55 seats on East Lindsey District Council are up for grabs with just two uncontested.

Notably, this time round, there seems to be significantly fewer United Kingdom Independence Party candidates, but a greater number of Independent councillors and independent groups, such as the Skegness Urban District Society.

If you still haven’t decided how you will vote, here’s a message from the main three parties and groups standing in the Skegness area

Skegness Conservative Party

Skegness Conservative Branch chairman Cllr Sid Dennis says:

During the last four years when Conservatives have led ELDC our achievements have included:

l Overseeing a £50 million increase in tourism income

l Helping to roll out broadband across the district

l Launching Wellbeing Lincs, supporting the most vulnerable

l Saving over £4.5 million of public money while protecting frontline services

ELDC’s Conservatives supported Skegness Town Council over transferring Tower Gardens kiosks, Scarbrough Avenue car park, walks and play areas back under the town’s control.

We share people’s frustrations about Brexit. But we are local Conservatives looking after your local interests.

Skegness Labour Party

‘Working together for the good of all’ - That’s what it means to be a Town and District Councillor. Listening to your residents, noting their concerns and doing something about it. Supporting vital services, improving the lives of the elderly and the vulnerable and helping young people to find housing and jobs. We have six strong candidates for the ELDC elections - two are women - and 11 experienced councillors and candidates ready to do just that for our town and to work more closely with ELDC and LCC, so they understand our needs, make their cuts elsewhere and protect Skegness from austerity.

Skegness Urban District Society

SUDS was set up after seeing the lack of investment from East Lindsey District Council for decades. We saw prime land in Skegness sold and the money spent elsewhere in the district, the illuminations spending cut to a bare minimum, the summer switch-on cancelled, car parking prices increased in Skegness but made free elsewhere in the district. The street lights being switched off has also caused problems for the town. The list is endless, so a group of like minded people are standing together to make our voice heard. It’s time to stop the rot and clean up our town.

CANDIDATES IN EAST LINDSEY DISTRICT COUNCIL

55 seats – two seats uncontested. Current make-up: Conservative 38, East Lindsey Independent Group 7, Labour 4, UKIP 3, District Independent/Liberal Democrat 2, Independent Byford 1

Turnout for last election (2015): 63,320

l Alford:

Conservative – Sarah Devereux

Conservative – Graham Marsh

Labour – Jean Shutt

l Burgh le Marsh:

Skegness Urban District Society – Jimmy Brookes

Conservative – Neil Cooper

l Chapel St Leonards:

Labour – Fiona Brown

Labour – Tony Cox

Conservative – Paul Hibbert-Greaves

Conservative – Mel Turton-Leivers

l Croft:

Conservative – Sid Dennis

Labour – April Jagger

Skegness Urban District Society – Tom Noble

Independent – Eric Peacock

l Friskney:

Labour – Andy Allen

Independent – Carleen Dickinson

Conservative – Tom Tuplin

l Hagworthingham:

Conservative – Will Grover

Labour – Rae Rigby

l Halton Holegate:

Labour – Julia Southall

Independent – Jim Swanson

Conservative – Nigel Welton

l Ingoldmells

Conservative – Colin Davie

Labour – Philip Ernest

Skegness Urban District Society – Steve Walmsley

l Spilsby:

Independent – David Mansion

Labour – Laura Stephenson

Conservative – Rod Williams

l Skegness, Scarborough and Seacroft:

Skegness Urban District Society – Billy Brookes

Skegness Urban District Society – Paul Sutton

Skegness Urban District Society – Bob Walker

Conservatives – Dick Edginton

Conservatives – Steve Kirk

Conservative – Colin Wright

Labour – Kevin Evans

Labour – Maggie Gray

l Skegness St Clements:

Labour – Mark Anderson

Labour – Phil Gaskell

Conservative – Susan Blackburn

Conservative – Jim Carpenter

Skegness Urban District Society – Richard Cunnington

Skegness Urban District Society – Mark Dannatt

l Skegness Winthorpe:

Skegness Urban District Society – Danny Brookes

Skegness Urban District Society – Trevor Burnham

Labour – Ian Dutton

Labour – Judi Gaskell

Conservatives – Ricky Gandecha

Conservatives – Carl Macey

l Wainfleet:

Conservative – Wendy Bowkett

Labour – Paula Clarke

* Verification will begin at 9.30am tomorrow (Friday) at the Meridian Leisure Centre, Louth, and the Standard will be publishing the results and highlights throughout the day.