Today the Statement of Persons Nominated for election as a Borough Councillor for Whitley has been published and it confirms who will be standing for election in the ward of Whitley. The candidates (and the wards they actually live in) are:
- Jamie Wake – Independent Candidate (Lives in Whitley Ward)
- Janel Blatter – Liberal Democrats (Lives in Katesgrove Ward)
- Rachel Eden – The Labour Party Candidate (Lives in Norcot Ward)
- Nicholas Brown – The Conservative Party Candidate (Lives in Whitley Ward)
- Keith Johnson – Green Party (Lives in Park Ward)
Surprisingly, UKIP have not fielded a candidate in Whitley and although the TUSC had listed Philip Dixon on their website as a candidate, he does not appear as a candidate on the Statement of Persons Nominated. With Howard Thomas and his Common Sense Party having moved to UKIP there is also no Common Sense Party Candidate this year. This leaves myself as the only alternative in Whitley to the main stream political parties this year.
Looking across all the wards, Labour, Conservatives, Lib Dems and the Greens have fielded candidates in all wards though it’s worth noting that some of these will be ‘paper candidates’. This means that they are just a name on the ballot paper. Those individuals are asked to stand to give that particular parties supporters a choice. This is usually because a party will be directing its resources to its target wards.
UKIP have fielded candidates in all wards except Battle, Norcot, Southcote, Thames and Whitley. The Roman Party. AVE are standing again in Battle. The TUSC were listed as fielding two candidates on their website – one in Whitley and the other in Katesgrove but have instead fielded just one in Caversham. There are three independent candidates standing: Myself in Whitley, Mark Ralph in Peppard and John Dickson in Thames.
There is also a by-election in Park Ward this year so my guess is that Labour, Tories and Greens will all be targeting that ward.
The full list of candidates can be found here on the Reading Borough Council Page http://www.reading.gov.uk/council/elections-and-voting/voting/
The full document can be found at: http://www.reading.gov.uk/documents/electoral/27714/StatementofPersonsNominated28apr14LocalElections.pdf