Dismay at lack of women standing in Herefordshire elections

The current make-up of Herefordshire Council includes 43% women

Equality campaigners say they are "dismayed" at the lack of women standing in county elections.

Despite a recent campaign, Herefordshire Women's Equality Group (HWEG) found there are twice as many male candidates as female.

The group has run a series of events to try to address the imbalance.

A spokesperson said the ratio of women to men was "considerably lower" than they had hoped.

HWEG found that of 192 candidates standing in Herefordshire's 53 council wards, just 59, or 31% were women.

The gender balance of the county's current councillors is closer, with 23 women and 30 men (43%).

The group said it was dismayed, particularly given the "strong representation of women" in the current council.

"We can only hope that the success rate of the women candidates is higher than that of the male candidates," a spokesperson added.

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HWEG urged people of Herefordshire "to use their votes wisely on 4 May to make sure women's voices play their proper part in local decision making for the next four years".

Herefordshire Council has had a better gender balance than most in the last four years.

According to the Fawcett Society, which campaigns on equality issues, just 35% of councillors elected in the 2019 local elections across England were women.

In the House of Commons, women similarly make up 31% of MPs.