Southampton elections 2023: Voters head to polls in biggest election

Three seats are up for election in all 17 wards across the city - with Labour keen to fight off challenges to their control of the authority.

Some 199 candidates will be fighting to be named a councillor. Ahead of the election, Labour had 26 councillors, the Conservatives 20, Liberal Democrats one and there was one independent.

These are what the parties are saying on some of the biggest issues.

Council tax increase

Labour’s recent council tax and social care precept increase of 4.99 per cent was heavily opposed by the Conservative opposition from the moment it was announced in February’s budget.

Labour – led by Satvir Kaur – say that increasing council tax is a ‘prudent’ way to make savings to help pay off the city council’s more-than-£20m shortfall – and so decided to take the maximum increase allowed by the government.

For every one per cent rise in core council tax, £1.1m can be saved.

The Tories on the other hand pledge to ‘freeze council tax’.

This is what they did when they got into power two years ago.

Tory leader Councillor Daniel Fitzhenry has, over the past few weeks, taken to social media to share his vision of a council tax freeze.

Cllr Fitzhenry has suggested ways of making savings without the council tax increase.

These include stopping investment into the cultural fund and closing down St Mary’s Leisure Centre once again.

The Liberal Democrats do not agree with an all-out freeze.

A spokesperson: “As many Liberal Democrat councils have achieved locally, we would aim to maintain or cut council tax bills in real terms.

“Council tax is not a progressive tax, meaning poorer households pay over the odds, so we would need to find other ways to bring more funding into the council.”

The Lib Dems say they would look for new ‘investment opportunities’ to help fund services rather than relying on ‘irregular’ government grants.

Reform UK say they would look for ‘better ways’ to provide services.

A spokesperson said: “Our stance would be to work within a budget, put pressure on the central government to provide support i.e. social care in particular which eats much of the finances; and we would look at better ways of providing services by taking on board best practices.”

The five-candidate strong party is concerned the council is ‘close to bankruptcy’.

The Greens lean more towards Labour’s side when it comes to the council tax hike.

They said: “Council tax needs to maintain the income necessary to maintain services as much as possible, so as to approximately match the inflation rate.  “The Government has cut council funding massively meaning that council tax income needs to be maintained at least at current levels in real terms.

“The council needs to be allowed to find other ways of raising money to replace the Conservative cuts.”

TUSC and the independent candidates did not respond to questions on the council tax rise.

Street lights switch-off

Another controversial Labour decision this year was to switch off the street lights every night between 1am and 4am in some areas to save money.

The street lights in ‘high risk’ areas such as the parks and the city centre are left on and the Labour council said it will keep the switched-off areas under ‘constant review’.

Hampshire’s Police and Crime Commissioner Donna Jones did not respond when asked for the police’s take on the matter – and there was no official police objection.

In one consultation, 67 per cent of respondents ‘voiced support’ for the plans.

However, the switch-off scheme made headlines when the VAWG (Violence Against Women and Girls) boss at the city council, cabinet member for crime prevention, Councillor Matt Renyard, said he was ‘not concerned’ about the plans – despite the VAWG programme having just received a six-figure sum from the government, specifically for increasing street lighting.

The Conservatives want to keep the lights on.

The Conservative’s shadow cabinet member for crime prevention Councillor Sarah Vaughan called on the council in March’s (2023) full council asking if it can ‘seriously’ say it supports the VAWG programme when doing something like switching off the street lights.

One Conservative candidate, Bevois’ Hillary Moulton said: “I am passionate about reversing Labour’s policy of turning off the street lamps at night.”

The Liberal Democrats also want to keep the street lights on, but have also called out the Conservatives for turning them off across other parts of Hampshire two years ago.

They said: “We understand residents’ concerns about their safety following the decision to switch off street lights at night, and this should always be the council’s first priority.

“When the Conservatives rolled this out across Hampshire two years ago, crime did increase in some areas.

“The Lib Dems successfully challenged this policy and got the lights turned back on in Pennington (New Forest).

“We are committed to finding radical solutions to the climate crisis – and the council’s financial crisis – but we need policies that work for residents.”

The Greens say that street lights ‘could be dimmed’ or ‘every other light turned off’.

They say this should be ‘only in the right locations, possibly with a sensor to brighten the area when a person is using the street’.  They also say that safety is ‘paramount’.

Reform UK said: “We would not impose such a measure especially during the winter and the fact serious crime seems to be on the rise across the city particularly against women.”

TUSC and the independent candidates did not respond.

Portswood Broadway closure

This heavily-debated scheme that aims to make Portswood district centre ‘greener and more vibrant’ has been in the pipeline for several years.

However, it came under scrutiny when it was released by the council towards the end of 2022 that the partial road closure (to private cars) between St Deny’s and Lodge Road could displace up to 12,000 cars every day.

The months that followed saw protests, petitions and council deputations opposing the scheme, but also a petition (which is still going on) all for the idea.

When the almost 3,000 signature-strong ‘SAY NO to Portswood corridor’ petition made it to full council in March, cabinet member for transport, Councillor Eamonn Keogh said that the council ‘passionately believes’ in the scheme – but the council did say they would ultimately take residents’ opinions on board in the ‘third consultation’.

The Conservatives have said they would scrap the scheme the moment they get into power.

Conservative Councillor John Hannides called out the Labour council in March claiming that it was being ‘disingenuous’.

The candidate for Bassett said: “The people of Southampton and the people of Portswood would probably see you (Labour) as more credible and have a bit more respect for you if you were just honest and came clean with the residents and admitted this was part of your ideological obsession of being anti motorists, anti car.”

Labour says scrapping the scheme could lead to the loss of millions of pounds of government transport funding.

The Liberal Democrats agree with pedestrianisation.  They said: “We believe in prioritising the safety and enjoyment of pedestrians and cyclists in the way we design our streets, and have long called for a more radical approach.”

However, they also said that the Portswood corridor consultation process has been ‘poorly managed’ and the current scheme could have a ‘detrimental’ effect on nearby roads.

Reform UK are completely against the road closure.

They said: “We are against this development on the grounds that the data and information presented are inaccurate.”

The Greens say that Portswood Broadway pedestrianisation proposal is a ‘good idea badly implemented’.  They said: “The Green Party cannot support the current scheme due to through traffic being diverted into residential roads rather than onto Thomas Lewis Way – however something needs to be done to revitalise Portswood High Street to attract local shoppers.”

TUSC and the two independent candidates didn’t respond.