Tens of thousands of steps, hundreds of hours of work and broken shoes: a day in the life of a Wigan council candidate

Weeks of planning in the lead-up to polls opening from different political parties is all carefully planned as dozens of people appeal for votes.

In Wigan it is no different, so the Local Democracy Reporting Service has met up with candidates to learn how those colourful leaflets get through so many letterboxes.

For Labour, as they already have a controlling portion of the council, it is about maintaining their huge majority of 61 council seats out of 75.

The LDRS joined Labour’s candidates Ron Conway, Laura Flynn and Chris Ready as they went out leafleting across Aspull to get a taste of what their pre-election work consisted as they tried to retain their seats.

We started with a visit to One House, the community centre in their ward, for breakfast before heading out to deliver leaflets to homes.

They council candidates spend around three to four hours each morning pushing their red leaflets through letterboxes before heading back out in the afternoon, Mr Ready said. This ends up being around 100 combined hours between the three of them over the course of the election build-up.

Their aim is to have a leaflet through the door of every house in their ward to ensure every resident knows what their policies are and what Labour stands for.

Having just three people hit thousands of houses in a matter of weeks is no easy feat. So like many other candidates, friends and family help out to spread the word.

Mr Ready confessed that this is physical work with the amount of steps being done, but exclaimed “we’re quite determined, we’re not about to rest on our laurels”.

Aspull is a ward with a varied population with some affluent areas and some more deprived, and to find the balance and find something that would appeal to all is hard, Mr Ready said. But he believes their constant presence in the area and showing they can make a difference is what can help them keep voters in their corner.

On the other hand, there are candidates trying to take seats from Labour, and Independent Network’s James Fish is a fresh face for a local party that have turned Atherton towards the purple rosettes in the past few years.

After Andy Brown was just pipped to the post by Labour’s Coun Barry Taylor for his Tyldesley and Mosley Common seat last election, James is now hoping to continue that work and get over the line in the same ward.

As he walked along Manchester Road leafleting with a friend, he told the LDRS that he “needs a new pair of shoes” he’s walked so much. In contrast to Labour’s all-encompassing approach, James has targeted specific areas he believes are more likely to vote for the Independent Network first.

This is so he doesn’t miss out on the postal voters, who need to send in their votes 11 working days before the polls open on May 4.

“It’s tough because you have a short period of time, but if you plan everything in advance it’s doable,” James said, after decribing days where he has done 30,000 steps going door to door. “My plan was to get leaflets out before postal votes go out.

“Half of the electorate votes on the day in Mosley Common so it’s pointless if half my voters come from there but I start on the other side of Tyldesley. You’ve got to look at this like a business and aim your approach based on your customers.”

He went on to say that it is difficult to find a singular issue that unites all people behind a particular person or party. For Mosley Common it is housing developments, but for Tyldesley’s centre it is congestion and crime that are the most talked about issues, James claimed.

All parties will have put out tens of thousands of leaflets across each ward in the borough come May 4 – so literature asking for votes will leave a rainbow-like trace among many doorsteps.

The Independent Network’s main focus is the Atherton area, which they already hold in the council chamber, and the surrounding wards of Atherton South and Lilford as well as Tyldesley Mosley Common. The Conservatives have made a similar approach, as they have only fielded three candidates in wards they are more confident in winning seats.

Areas the Tories have targeted include Orrell, the former seat of group leader Michael Winstanley until he was ousted last year, as well as Standish, Lowton East and other areas where they’ve found success in the past.

The Conservatives are running a campaign based on protecting the greenbelt, opposing housing developments, road improvements and regenerating the town centres. This is what they are hoping will come through when voters go to the polls.

The local election polls will open at 7am on Thursday, May 4 and close at 10pm with the results coming the following day.