WHO will get your vote when Tameside goes to the polls on Thursday, May 6?
Residents who are registered to vote can have their say in the local borough elections and also the Greater Manchester Mayoral Elections.
For the local borough elections, one new councillor per ward will be elected from nominated candidates to represent the area on Tameside Council. Residents can have their say for the ward in which they live.
There are different ways to vote in the elections: at your local polling station, by post or by proxy (appointing someone to vote on your behalf).
You will receive a poll card telling you where to vote if you wish to vote in person at your local polling station on May 6.
Significant efforts have been made to ensure that all polling stations are Covid safe. Voters and staff will be required to wear a face covering (unless they are exempt), observe social distancing and use hand sanitiser which will be made available. Voters can bring their own pen or pencil should they wish to do so.
If you registered for a postal vote, you will receive a voting pack in the post including instructions on how to vote. Make sure you send it back so that it arrives by 10pm on election day.
The counts for local elections will commence at 11am on Friday, May 7 at Plantation Industrial Estate, Whitelands Road, Ashton-under-Lyne and is expected to be completed by 4pm. Admittance is strictly by ticket only.
To find out more go online: www.tameside.gov.uk/elections/ or call 0161 342 8355.
Here are the candidates standing in Denton West ward:
Thomas Dunne, Conservative Party
LAST time when I stood as your Conservative candidate you told me that the state of the roads locally were the top of your priorities. I promised that I would fight for greater investment to fix the potholes and clean up our streets.
The Conservative Government has created a £2.5 billion pothole fund. If I am elected, I will push for our fair share of this money for the roads of Denton. I will also fight to increase money spent on street cleaners, so the residential streets on the estates are also swept, not just the town centres.
That is what I believe you want from your local councillors – someone who listens to you and reacts to your needs. The local Labour councillors have done nothing to fix the potholes and clean up our streets. Instead, they have spent millions of pounds of your money on brand new offices for themselves in Ashton!
As your Conservative councillor I would listen to you and stand up for you. A vote for me on May 6 is to tell Labour to fix the potholes and to clean our streets.
George Jones, Labour Party
I CANNOT believe it has been nearly a year-and-a-half since I was first elected to represent my home community on Tameside Council – where has the time gone?!
I am so proud of what I’ve achieved so far, from supporting residents with casework to campaigning on multiple challenges facing our community to supporting our brilliant community groups and organisations.
I believe that collectively we have made our area a cleaner, greener and safer place to live.
I have much more I want to do and issues I want to try and address to make this ward the best place to grow up in and the best place to grow old in.
I have always put Denton West at the heart of everything I do and I promise that, if re-elected, I will continue to do that. This community is my home, and I would be honoured once again to have the opportunity to serve it.
Jean Smee, Green Party
MY name is Jean Smee, and I am standing once more for Denton West. I have lived in the Tameside area for most of my life and brought up my family here.
As a teacher I have worked in schools across the area, including Denton.
Denton West End has a well-established tradition of community involvement and activism and if elected my aim would be to encourage more projects and to consolidate and protect the existing ones.
It must be a priority to ensure that the council does not gradually withdraw any support they are giving in the guise of efficiency. In the pandemic we have realised the importance of the need to live in a supportive community with access to clean air and outside spaces.
Walking and cycling should be encouraged, and public transport organised to be of use to all. The Green Party believes we must develop locally and sustainably and this make our contribution to the whole of our planet.
Vote Green for Denton West on May 6.