Andy D'Agorne

Nominations for the local elections closed at Monday lunchtime and the biggest surprise was not the 42 out of 47 seats being contested by the Greens but the 15 'lost' Conservative candidates, leaving them contesting only 32 seats! For several days afterwards the local website proudly displayed all 47 hopefuls, but the elections office nomination record shows that several forms submitted were invalid and others simply failed to be handed in before the deadline. And this is the party that's running the country... This means that there will be no Conservative on the ballot paper in Fishergate or Heslington and one less than the full complement of three in Micklegate. Our lead candidate for Micklegate Andy Chase and our hopeful in Heslington Caleb Wooding now have a much better chance of making it onto the council in a few weeks time if they can win over a few Tory voters who are very unlikely to vote Labour instead.