People living in the only area of Nottingham to have voted Conservative at the last city council election say there is some "confusion" ahead of this year's contest. Clifton West is a Nottingham City Council ward, created at the last election in 2019, which primarily comprises Clifton Village.
It has been represented for the last four years by two Conservative councillors - Andrew Rule and Roger Steel. But after Mr Steel's deselection from the party, which caused Mr Rule to resign in protest, both of Nottingham's two current Tory councillors will be standing as independents on May 4.
The Conservatives have selected two new candidates for Clifton West, with candidates for Labour, the Nottingham Independents and the Liberal Democrats also fighting the seat. The situation has led some of those living in the area to feel torn.
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A 70-year-old resident of Clifton Village, who has been in the area for 35 years, said: "My wife and I certainly intend to vote this time, but we are a little confused at the moment. At the very least, the two current councillors have been very responsive to concerns and so it's a case of better the devil you know.
"They have both been Conservative and are now independent and there may be an assumption that I'll vote Conservative, but we're still undecided." Lee Jules-Foulds, 44, a civil servant who once lived in Clifton Village but now lives in an area forming part of the Clifton East ward, said he does not intend to vote in the local elections.
When told that Clifton West was the only Nottingham area to vote Conservative in 2019, Mr Jules-Foulds said: "It wasn't me. There are definitely a lot more rich people living here in the village than on the other side of the A453.
"I think for people here it's a bit more instinctive to vote Conservative and I've lived in Clifton all my life. I don't tend to vote in these local elections because I never seem to see local councillors changing the issues we've had in Clifton for years like drugs and violence.
"I would imagine that this area will still vote Conservative in May." One man who has lived in Clifton Village for three years said: "I had heard that Roger Steel had been deselected and that Andrew Rule had resigned in protest, and I actually emailed Andrew Rule for him to confirm that because it still lists him as a Conservative member on the Nottingham City Council website.
"Unfortunately he hasn't got back to me yet." But as we were speaking with this particular resident, Andrew Rule himself happened to walk round the corner.
After apologising for not replying to the gentleman's email, he confirmed to him he had resigned from the Nottingham Conservatives and that he would be standing as an independent in May. The resident then said he intended to vote for Andrew Rule and Roger Steel on May 4.
Andrew Rule was leafleting in Clifton Village when Nottinghamshire Live visited on Friday (April 14). He described himself and Roger Steel as feeling "hopeful but not overconfident" about May's election.
But another resident of the area described apathy with the whole election process, saying: "The country needs politicians to give people what they need instead of what they want, but when I look at the state of it now I think things have got worse. I won't be voting in these local elections and the last time I did was many, many years ago now." Below are all the candidates standing on May 4 in Clifton West, which is represented by two councillors:
Daniel Atherton - Conservative
Paul Bradshaw - Nottingham Independents
Emma Crane - Nottingham Independents
Aamir Nawaz - Conservative
Andrew Rule - Independent
Hayley Spain - Labour
Roger Steel - Independent
Mark Vandersluis - Liberal Democrat
Seb Wilkins - Labour
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