England Elections 2022: 'Everyone is talking about money on Merseyside'

The cost of living crisis is the main topic driving conversations ahead of the local elections

Money. Everyone is talking about money.

From the Merseyside council rapped on the knuckles for not making "tough choices" over its budgets, to the residents opening their council tax bill this month and seeing an above-inflation increase once again, these local elections are being fought amid a steep rise in the cost of living.

There are local elections in five of the six boroughs which make up the Liverpool City Region: Wirral, Halton, St Helens, Sefton and Knowsley.

All the boroughs have Labour leaders and all, apart from Wirral, have huge Labour majorities.

That means Labour have more councillors than the other parties, and that really is unlikely to change, apart from in Wirral, where power hangs in the balance.

There, a small number of votes could actually change everything, and Labour could be in trouble.

After losing its majority in 2019, the party now has 27 of Wirral's 66 councillors, well below the 34 it needs to regain full control of the council and only four more than the Conservatives hold.

And money is very much the focus of the election campaign in Wirral.

Paying for garden waste collections has become a hot topic across Merseyside

It will be the first chance voters have to cast their views on the £20m of cuts the council made in its budget, with funding set to be withdrawn from a leisure centre and nine public libraries, while two public golf courses have already closed.

Labour's lost seats to the Greens in Wirral in recent years and the party had its strongest ever election results in 2021, winning in six wards.

Wirral has successfully bid for millions of pounds of Levelling Up and Town Deal cash for places like New Ferry and Birkenhead, but with both the Labour administration and the Conservative opposition claiming credit, it will be interesting to see who voters reward.

St Helens is also benefitting from millions to revamp its town centre.

This year, as a result of boundary changes, all 48 seats on the council are being contested.

Labour dominates, with 35 of 48 seats, while the Liberal Democrats are the largest opposition with four seats, ahead of the Conservatives and Greens, who have three each, and three independent councillors.

Struggling with bills

Last May saw "all out" elections in Halton, but this time around, a third of its 54 seats are up for grabs.

Forty-eight seats are currently held by Labour, while Lib Dems have three, Conservatives two and, thanks to a first ever win in 2021, the Green Party has one.

Knowsley's Labour councillors will be hoping bringing a supermarket to Kirkby for the first time in 40 years and the scheduled completion later in the year of the new Shakespeare North Playhouse theatre in Prescot will cement their huge majority.

The Green Party has capitalised in the past on fears of green space development across the borough.

Knowsley used to be famed for being a one-party state, and often had a handful of wards with only one candidate.

However, times have changed and there is plenty of choice in all of the 45 wards being contested this time.

Work on Prescot's new Shakespeare North Playhouse is nearing completion, but will Knowsley voters care?

In fact, Sefton is the only borough with an uncontested ward.

St Oswald in Bootle will remain in Labour hands because with no other candidates coming forward, Carla Thomas will hold her seat.

In the wider borough, which includes the only Tory MP on Merseyside in Southport's Damien Moore, Labour will be looking to add to their 48 seats, the most any party had held since the metropolitan borough was formed in 1974.

Conservatives and Liberal Democrats both hold eight seats heading into the elections, with Formby Residents Action Group also holding two.

There are no elections in Liverpool this year - except a single ward by-election - but 2023 will be a big year in the city's politics, as it moves to all-out elections and brand new ward boundaries, which will see the political map redrawn.

And even without elections, there's a debate raging in Liverpool about money too - not least the introduction of a new charge for garden waste collections.

In Wirral, St Helens and Halton residents already pay to have their garden waste collected.

But some issues go beyond the traditional local election staples of bins and potholes.

On the doorstep, campaigners say they are hearing money worries with voters struggling to pay the bills.

Council tax has risen for every household this month too.

Councils say they are also strapped for cash and have no option but to increase taxes.

Whether the voters will accept that remains to be seen.

Council spending - facts and figures