To vote or not to vote: apathy on the streets of Ashton

The 2019 local elections take place today but, if recent turn-out patterns continue in the same vein, a vast majority of Greater Manchester residents will not have their say at the ballot box.

Local Democracy reporters have been taking part in a special project, spotlighting ‘The Streets That Don’t Vote’ across the country. They have been knocking on the doorsteps in wards with the lowest turn-out records to ask why so few bother – and if that is likely to change. In Tameside, Local Democracy Reporter Charlotte Green visited Ashton to find out...

John Mitchell has voted in every single election since he was able to get a polling card, aged 21. General elections, council elections, MEPs, the whole set – he’s taken part.

But now the 65-year-old says he’s turning his back on the democratic process, and won’t be casting a ballot in the forthcoming local elections - or ever again. “I am not happy with the council but it boils down to lack of trust with politics,” he says.

He is one of a growing majority of residents in Tameside who – for a variety of reasons – are choosing not to attend a polling station tomorrow.

On the doorstep in Ashton St Michael’s ward, residents spoke of apathy, distrust of politicians and anger over how the Brexit negotiations are being handled. The Ashton-under-Lyne ward had the lowest turn-out across the whole borough in 2018 – just 24 per cent.

It’s symptomatic of a wider downward trend that saw less than a third of the borough’s residents take part in the locals last year.

When the Local Democracy Reporting Service visited the area, most residents were clear – they won’t be putting a cross in the box next month. For Bowman Crescent resident and former die-hard voter John, it’s a feeling of Brexit betrayal mixed in with a sense that politics locally has gone stale.

“I just feel very betrayed by where government and local parties have left us,” John says. “You can vote UKIP or Monster Raving Loony Party, because Labour will get in anyway. It’s a pointless exercise. I know it’s got nothing to do with Tameside Council, this Brexit mess, but like it or not – they are being tarred with the same brush.”

On nearby Freeman Avenue, Bryan Buckley is just as forthright. “I have thrown my polling card in the bin,” the 60-year-old says. “I used to think a lot of voting, passed down through my father who was a Labour man through-and-through. 

“But they talk a load of cr*p. I’ve not had any of them knocking on the door. How do you vote now – toss a coin? We never get the right outcome. I bet the majority of people here won’t vote and that’s politics today. It’s a lot of rubbish.”

Derby Road resident Barrie Gould said he would only take part if he could vote for a UKIP candidate – but they aren’t standing in his ward.

Barrie used to be a staunch Labour voter but is unhappy with the leadership and believes they aren’t pushing for the Brexit he supports. And he has also experienced problems with the council, citing slow reactions to fly-tipping and potholed roads.

“They are not listening, the council, they are not doing anything for the good of Ashton,” the 71-year-old says. “People are just fed up with it and just can’t basically see the point of voting. Say I do a protest vote, I’ll vote UKIP, it’s just to protest against the council because I don’t think they are doing enough.”

Lapsed voter Vinny Guarnieri, 67, has lived on Bowman Crescent for 14 years and has opted not to vote in recent years.

“They all promise stuff but none of them seem to deliver,” he says. “There’s crime in this area, there’s drugs. You complain to the councillors but none of them seem to do anything. Who do you vote for that’s going to do anything for the people?”

Debbie has lived in Ashton for 24 years, but says she wouldn’t recognise her ward councillors if they passed her on the street.

“I voted last year. But I’m not going to again because whoever gets in there, they’re all the same,” the 48-year-old adds. "One councillor did something for us, they got a street lamp put in. But that was 10 years ago.”

Many of the people spoken to by the LDRS are former voters, but there are some who have never taken part. Mr Morris has lived in Ashton for nearly 50 years – and in all those decades he has never cast a ballot.

“It doesn’t make any difference. It’s just putting a cross to something,” the 84-year-old says. “I’ve never voted, I’ve abstained. It’s a privilege that you get. You look after yourself because nobody is going to look after you.”

His neighbour on Bowman Crescent, Gwen Warhurst, 64, is in the same boat. “I have never voted. There’s no one I believe in,” she says. "It’s just not worth my time. There’s no point to it anyway.”

But Paul Rusby believes taking part is still the right thing to do – even though he understands why people are losing faith. He has lived on Abingdon Street for more than four years, and says he has never been door knocked by a candidate – or received a leaflet.

“I think that those that do turn out just turn out because they always vote Labour or they always vote Conservative,” the 59-year-old says. “It’s either loyalty or habit, a lot of people – they do feel let down.

“They are resting on their laurels here, they think ‘it’s a Labour stronghold, why should we bother’ – but we should be voting on the policies, not on the party.

"Without that you’re lost. And people become apathetic.”