Redditch elections: The battle for ideas

Cheaper car parking, a fly-tipping crackdown, better social housing stock, solar panels on council buildings and a strategy to reduce town centre crime.

Sounds like ideas most people would support, right? That's just five of the dozens of pledges being made by five different political parties in Redditch.

Polling day is almost here - with nine of the 27 seats up for grabs on Redditch Borough Council on Thursday.

And in a bid to woo voters, all the political parties have attempted to set out what they'd like to do for the town, if they can win enough seats to influence spending.

Labour holds 18 of the council's 27 seats, having come to power in 2024 from the Conservatives.

Group leader Sharon Harvey said her party's priorities focused on the town centre - with the aim of improving footfall and making people feel safer.

Central to that are various public realm improvements, as well as continuing to support the newly-relaunched Redditch market and the creation of an innovation centre.

Labour also intends to push hard on the town hall revamp, a project that started last year, with the aim of making it more of a community venue, offering some NHS services.

"We've been able to do a lot of things since we took control of the council that we're proud of," said Harvey.

"There's a lot going on - and after these elections I want to be able to say we finished the job on all this."

The Conservatives go into this election holding just five of the council's seats after losing control in a disastrous showing in 2024, but could a comeback of sorts be on?

Local candidates are bullish about their prospects.

Craig Warhurst, Tory group leader, told the BBC he was "confident" they could win "three or four seats".

"We left Labour in a great position with £29m pounds in reserves," he said.

"If we could offer free or discounted car parking for two, three or four hours we could drive more footfall into Redditch.

"I also think homelessness is a major issue - I'd invest in buying more properties to increase our council housing stock."

Confidence is high among Reform ranks in Redditch, mainly due to what their own data is telling them.

Party officials have told the BBC they consider themselves favourites to win in almost every seat.

Nic Pioli, secretary of Reform's Redditch branch, said: "We feel we're at the beginning of a grassroots movement that hopefully will result in our leader (Nigel Farage) becoming prime minister."

He also said if Reform do secure significant numbers of seats, they would be pushing the council on several fronts.

"We want to get the basics right, because that's what people want from council services," he said.

"They don't want 'policies and plans' - they want real action, for example tidying up public areas, removing unwanted vehicles, cutting down trees that encroach on people's properties, tackling mould and damp in council houses."

The Green Party also hope for strong national polling results - building on the one council seat they currently hold in Redditch.

A local manifesto includes ideas like installing rooftop solar on council buildings, and a plan to publish "plain English" budgets so residents can hold the council to account.

Tackling empty high street units is also on their agenda.

"Lots of people are looking for something different, and we know the Greens offer that," Green councillor Claire Davies said.

"Success for us would be having more than one Green on the council - to have a group of us would be amazing."

The Lib Dems said they intend to have a "basics-first approach" if they win any seats on the council.

The party has no councillors on the authority at the moment, but local candidates said they are hoping to tap into the party's reputation for having hard-working local councillors.

Lib Dem candidate Andrew Fieldsend-Roxborough said: "We're not bickering about national issues like the other parties.

"Problems like fly-tipping, cars parked inappropriately outside schools, blocked drains, all these issues are ones we need to focus on."

• SIMPLE GUIDE: What elections are taking place in May?
• EXPLAINER: What can't you do at a polling station?
• LOOKAHEAD: When is the next general election?
• POSTCODE LOOKUP: Is there an election in your area?

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