As part of our election coverage we are focussing on two typical streets in two key constituencies.
Reporter Rachel Millard visited two streets, one in Hove and one in Brighton Pavilion, to gauge the temperature among the floating voters.
THE DRIVE, HOVE
Anthony Thompson grew up in a politically divided home: his mother voted Labour, his father Conservative, and they pinned their competing posters in the upstairs and downstairs windows.
Many years later and now living in Hove, that old tug-of-war has worked its way back into his life, although in a somewhat different guise.
The 65-year-old resident of The Drive is considering changing his historic Conservative vote to Labour.
“I have always voted Conservative but I am annoyed about the way the Conservatives have handled the Greens," he said, referring to the Tories’ role in opposition on the city council, where they have had 18 councillors to the Greens’ 20.
“They could have stopped a lot of things,” added Mr Thompson. “I am not quite sure but I may change my allegiance to [Labour parliamentary candidate] Peter Kyle. I was quite impressed by him.”
The retired nurse is not the only resident of The Drive still wavering over his vote in this key marginal constituency, with less than one month to go until the council and general election.
Luke Davies, 27, said he was torn between Labour and Green, echoing the thoughts of many when he said last year’s strikes by rubbish collectors over pay had dealt the Greens a big blow.
“That kind of annoyed a lot of people and I think that is causing a swing back to Labour,” he said. “It was gross, one of the most disgusting things I have ever seen.”
In fairness, the party says it inherited the pay inequality it was trying to address, sparking the row, and that it should have been dealt with by previous Labour and Conservative administrations.
Yet wherever the fault lies in reality, most people spoken to by The Argus were quick to recall stinking piles of rubbish on the streets – and blamed the party in charge of the council at the time.
In general elections, the party whose only MP represents the neighbouring constituency has not polled well here, in any case. In 2010 the Green Party got 5.2 % of the vote, coming fourth behind the Liberal Democrats.
The constituency has long instead been a fight between red and blue.
It voted Conservative in 1992, then Labour in the next three elections before narrowly voting in the Tories’ Mike Weatherly in 2010 on a margin of less than four percentage points. He is not standing for re-election, and the ward’s status as both battleground and bellwether has drawn flying visits from numerous political bigwigs in recent weeks.
Yet some residents were surprised, given there is so much to play for, at how little they had been courted. One woman in her eighties said it was “ridiculous” that no politician had yet knocked on her door.
“If they don’t come, they don’t know what your concerns are, so how can they do anything about them?” she said.
“Nobody is saying anything about defence, and when you are somebody like me who has been through a war and you see what is going on in Russia and Eastern Europe and other parts of the world… we are an island nation and we depend on our Navy.”
Stretching north from Church Road, The Drive spans council wards, with three Green councillors representing the northern end, in Goldsmid ward, and one Conservative and one Green at the southern end, in Hove Central ward. In a mixture of detached houses, flats, sheltered accommodation and offices, an artifacts and furniture shop, The Conservatory, sticks out. Its owner is just as forthright.
“The Greens need to be run out of town,” said Mick de Stripp. “They are supposed to be a Green Party but they have restricted the flow of traffic, leading to cars sitting in queues belching out CO2.”
Mr De Stripp did not want to say who he was voting for, but added: “I was going to vote for somebody different but decided to revert to previous because the consequences of not voting for them would be immensely damaging.”
He was far from the only resident to mention local traffic policies as a factor in their decision-making, with Ashraf Yousif, 42, noting he was “not too happy” with the amount of money spent on roads and cycle lanes.
Jenny Bouston said she thought some of the Greens’ schemes seemed “slightly chaotic” – such as “bicycle lanes cropping up that don’t need to be of any benefit really”.
“I am pro cycling lanes,” she added. “My mother is from Sweden but there they do it properly.”
This will be her first general election as a Hove voter, and the 34-year-old administrator said she was leaning towards Labour for their national policies.
She said: “I have been told it is between Labour and the Tories and there is no point voting Liberal Democrat. I think they talk about some of the things that concern me – renting for example and being able to get on the property ladder.”
While many like her are still making up their minds, Mike Lamb, 76, knows exactly where he stands.
“I will be voting Conservative,” he said. “I think Labour is a waste of time. There is nothing there, they have crossed policies. Ed Miliband seems false to me.
“I think they the Tories are honest, they have got the country out of quite a big hole over the past few years and I think they are just better presented.”
Mr Thompson, meanwhile, maintains that among the decisions Tories could have done more to stop is the i360, the 162-metre observation tower being built on the seafront, mostly funded through a £36million loan from the Public Works Loan Board. “It is £36million pounds off the taxpayer when there are all these things that need to be done,” he said.
“The council should make sure it can do what it is supposed to do instead of getting us in debt with this tower. Look after the vulnerable first.”
DYKE ROAD, BRIGHTON
Residents in and around Dyke Road have a potentially more weighty decision to make than many voters when they step into the polling booths come May 7.
Last election their constituency helped make history by voting in the country’s only Green MP – and now gets to decide whether that big political experiment should be stuck with or struck out.
And when it comes to council elections the road lies along the dividing boundary between the Regency and St Peter’s and North Laine wards.
Those on the north eastern side are in St Peter’s and North Laine and those on the southerly side in the Regency ward, currently represented by the retiring council leader Jason Kitcat.
In an election in which the Green Party says it is making huge gains nationally, many eyes will be on the seat where it all began – but at least this time voters are not making a leap of faith.
After four years with Caroline Lucas MP and all Green councillors, residents here know better than most what it means to be represented by the party.
Yet voting decisions are not always straightforward. Miranda Palmer, 27, said she liked much about the Greens’ policies and decisions, but would probably vote Labour in the general election.
“I think the most important thing is to get the Conservatives out,” she said, "and I am hoping that Labour will be the best prescription for doing so.
“I just find that the rich are getting richer and the poor are getting poorer.
“I am thinking about voting locally for the Green Party: I just feel that some of their policies are more in keeping with the way I would like things to be. Yes I think it [the Green council] has been good.”
Dyke Road resident Michael Thorold, 63, is considering casting his vote in the council elections the other way around.
He said: “I was always Labour up to the last time where perhaps I got a bit fed up with things so I did two Greens and, for old time’s sake, one Labour.
“This time I think I will probably go back to Labour councillors. I like their policies generally on social justices, whereas certainly the Tories, well...”
One of the reasons he got fed up with Labour, Mr Thorold said, was the Iraq war, an issue that also still rankles for local newsagent Ramsay Midhad.
The 37-year-old, who moved to England from Sudan as a child, said: “I had voted for Labour but after they decided to go to war with Iraq and everything became really bad, so for that reason I don’t think I am going to vote Labour again.
“I think the Conservatives can handle things. They are not perfect, but give them time.
“Locally, they have got to sort out the buses and the roads. I have been using the roads for 25 years and then suddenly you are not allowed to go here or there, and there is a camera to catch you.”
Dyke Road in Brighton Pavilion stretches north from Queen Square, mostly residential but with a smattering of predominately independent shops, bars and restaurants at the Seven Dials end.
Scott McCall works in Room 5 Hairdressing and lives around the corner. At the age of 30, he is a first time voter after finally becoming interested in politics.
He said: “I never really felt like it affected me before.”
Yet he has found himself somewhat disorientated, he said, about his voting choices.
“I always kind of felt that being gay and living in Brighton I was always going to vote Green,” he said. “But then I saw Natalie Bennett [Green Party leader] on Question Time and I felt that she did not quite know what she was talking about. But I think the Greens have done not a bad job on the council.”
He was still weighing his options, he said, adding: “The scary thing is if you don’t look any further than what the parties say about themselves.”
Husain Haitar, 30, originally from Uzbekistan, works at the kebab shop opposite and said he, too, is undecided about who to vote for. But he knows at least some of what he wants.
“I think they should increase wages,” he said. “If you want to work in a bank now on a starting wage of £16,000, what can you do on that? You can just pay for your rent and that is it.”
Mr Haitar said he had not watched the TV debates between the party leaders, noting that “paying for a TV licence is very expensive. ”
Labour supporter Ms Palmer, meanwhile, could happily have missed the televised debate between Labour leader Ed Miliband and interviewer Jeremy Paxman. “I thought he was trying to make Miliband look insecure,” she said. “And I also think David Cameron does not answer the questions.”A similar frustration with politicians was expressed by Richard Richardson, retired, who jokily suggested that “building a fire and burning them” seemed like a good idea.
He said one of the gripes locally was the spending of seemingly vast sums of money on public schemes with little apparent benefit.
“You know, they are allotted a certain amount of money to spend and there is so much that needs to be done,” he said. “And so much time and effort is spent on these things.
“Then when they have finished it you look at it and think, it is nice to have another bunch of flowers and a cycle lane, but why has it taken month after month after month?”
Mr Richardson, who lives just around the corner from Dyke Road, added there had been “high hopes” for the Greens, but “quite frankly it does not seem to have made any difference”.
Still, he said he had yet to make up his mind about who to vote for, adding: “I sort of let it slide until the day comes and then I think, who shall I honour with my vote?
“I am probably leaning towards the left. I probably will actually this time vote the same way [as last time] but there is still time between now and then for there to be something that might persuade me.”
The candidates
Hove constituency – candidates for MP
Jenny Barnard-Langston, Independent; Graham Cox, Conservative; Dame Dixon, Official Monster Raving Loony Party; Christopher Hawtree, Green; Dave Hill, Trade Union and Socialist Coalition; Peter Kyle, Labour; Peter John Lambell, Liberal Democrat; Kevin Smith, UKIP
Central Hove ward
Beatrice Christina Bass, Liberal Democrats; Ray Cunningham, Green; Nigel Furness, UKIP; Jeremy Gale, Liberal Democrats; Rebecca Jones, Green; Glenn Kelly, Trade Union and Socialist Coalition; Lloyd Magee, Conservative; Clare Moonan, Labour; David Trangmar, Labour; Andrew Wealls, Conservative.
Goldsmid ward
Lucy Emeile-Samy, Conservative; Linda Freedman, Conservative; Dave Hill, Trade Union and Socialist Coalition; Saoirse Horan, Labour; Daniel Hoskins, Conservative; Amanda Knight, Green; Andrew Lippett, Green; Matthew Moors, Green; Jackie O’Quinn, Labour; Gloria Parks, UKIP; Malcolm Prescott, Labour; Kevin Smith, UKIP; Robert Simon Spurrier-Kimbell, UKIP
Brighton Pavilion constituency– candidates for MP
Chris Bowers, Liberal Democrats; Nigel Carter, UKIP; Caroline Lucas, Green Party; Clarence Mitchell, Conservative; Howard Pilott, The Socialist Party of Great Britain; Purna Sen, Labour; Nick Yeomans, Independent
Regency ward
Tom Druitt, Green; Trevor Freeman, Liberal Democrat; Ed Huxley, Left unity; Jo Jameson, Conservative; Kevin Neil Jameson, Conservative; Beth Johnson-Dawes, Liberal Democrat; Alexandra Phillips, Green; Jonathan Skinner, Labour; Catherine Wilson, Labour
St Peter’s and North Laine ward
Caraline Sarah Brown, Labour; Lizzie Deane, Green; Louisa Greenbaum, Green; Rob Heale, Liberal Democrat; Jennifer Helen Henderson, Labour; Mike Long, Conservative; Jessica Mary Marchant, Trade Union and Socialist Coalition; Heather Newberry-Martin, Conservative; William Parker, Liberal Democrat; Pat Ward, Conservative; Pete West, Green; Michael Wilbur, Liberal Democrat; Maureen Elizabeth Winder, Labour
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