Medway Independent Group Candidates?

A welcome return from holiday of Medway Messenger local politics blogger Alan Watkins brings the following snippet in today's entry in his Gun Wharf Tales:

"Meanwhile the four independent councillors who formed their own group...are whispered to be planning to put up candidates of their own next May."

I wish them well, if they do! It is healthy to have more political diversity, at least in general terms. Just as long as it doesn't result in an inconclusive overall result there is scope for a broader local political scene than just the Conservatives, Labour and Liberal Democrats on the Council, perhaps with the odd Independent, as has tended to be the case following every all-out council election for this Unitary Authority.

It has always been difficult gaining significant voter support during these Medway Unitary Council years if one was not a member of one of the "big three" parties. The only councillors who have been elected as Independents here have had the path cleared for them to some extent by having only unlikely winners stand against them.

Essentially this was the old Hook Meadow ward (pre-boundary changes) and Walderslade since 2003, by former Liberal Democrats and a like-minded replacement for one who later retired, where the Lib Dems didn't field their own candidates. Even so, they lost one of their two seats there to the Conservatives, in May 2007.

Other independent candidates in Medway, even re-standing existing councillors such as Matt Fearn, sometimes gained respectable numbers of votes but nowhere near the voting numbers recorded by other (party-based) candidates. Using the example of Matt Fearn (a particularly successful example, in fact), when he stood in Rainham Central ward as an Independent in 2007 he got 1,008 votes. The three Conservative candidates in that ward each gained well over twice that number, and even one of the Lib Dem candidates got 1,081 votes.

The Medway Independent Party (not Group) also did poorly in the 2007 council elections, obtaining just 2·64% of the vote, despite fielding 14 candidates, which averages out at around 300 votes each. By comparison, Conservative candidates averaged well over a thousand votes apiece.

Therefore it isn't going to be easy for the Independent Group to achieve anything more than (they'll hope) hold their current four seats. Even that isn't assured by any means. The two Gouldens should hold theirs, because of their personal local standing in Luton and Wayfield, but the other two seats are both vulnerable.

I don't know what I can usefully suggest, apart from perhaps a group name and logo to make them distinctive and to show the link between them; also some kind of manifesto. I'm sure they'll give it their best shot in May 2011 and we shall see, at that time, what the voters of Medway then decide.