#ConnectingMerton
Engaging with local democracy, in-person.
By now you will have hopefully picked up that Wimbledon Community Association (‘Wimblecomm’) is embarking on another hustings on 29th April, ahead of the local Merton Council elections next month, following our first successful foray into this area for the Wimbledon Constituency ahead of the July 2024 General Election.
As with the previous event, this is not something we are obliged to do but, as Trustees, we feel that democracy is something we need to continue to support – as a charity and non-political organisation enshrined in our constitution. So much of public engagement these days, including with politicians, takes place online now – but this will be an opportunity to question our future local leaders in person.
Local elections mean voting for candidates in your local ward, so Councils (like Governments) are often made up of a variety of different parties. As we consider ourselves a Merton-based charity, and with 20 different wards in the borough and 57 councillors to be elected (three wards have just two councillors), we felt it best that we set up a hustings to give a platform for those parties which could, at least in theory, form a majority on the whole Council (i.e., at least 29 councillors).
We are pleased that we have been able to get representatives from each of the parties meeting those criteria, namely (in alphabetical order):
- The Conservative Party
- The Green Party
- The Labour Party
- The Liberal Democrats
- Reform UK
There are, of course, several independents standing locally, including two incumbents in the Merton Park ward, but we felt that allowing them to sit on the same platform would be disproportionate for a borough-wide hustings. Hopefully they will have the opportunity to present and make their voices heard at other events in their local wards.
As with last time, we have decided to ask people to register their attendance in advance and pose questions they want to ask. We have again been fortunate to recruit an extremely experienced local facilitator in Louise Hanson to preside over the event and she will be working closely with the Wimblecomm team to assemble the questions based on topics and issues raised.
If you have not yet done so, there are still some spaces available to register and put your questions to the panel by completing the Google Sheets registration form: Wimblecomm Hustings for Merton Council Elections 2026.
Party representatives will not know the questions until they are posed on the night. The intention is to give each party spokesperson the same amount of time to answer the questions, and we will alter the order in which each question is asked to ensure a balanced rotation. We do not plan to open the debate up to the floor, but Louise, our facilitator, may seek a show of hands on some issues, where appropriate.
This time we are holding the event at the Citizen Hub Wimbledon @ The Shed, 267 The Broadway SW19 1SD. We are keen to support the weekday repurposing of this venue, now home to the new Citizen Hub Wimbledon following the success of the first Citizen Hub in St Neots, Cambridgeshire. You can find out more about their plans and the project here: Citizen Hub | Community-Led Support
If we meet the capacity for the relatively spacious room at the back of the venue, we are looking to live stream it (subject to technical requirements) into the middle adjoining room which is slightly smaller, although it will not be streamed outside the venue.
The event is free to attend by pre-registration and guests will be required to provide their name at reception in line with their registration. Doors open at 7pm for a 7.30pm prompt start. Our team will hopefully be able to process the queue efficiently, but it would help if you could arrive at or soon after 7pm. The event will come to a close at around 9.30pm.
We look forward to seeing as many of you there for what we hope will be an engaging and useful evening in the furtherance of local democracy.
Written by David Hall, Chair of Wimbledon Community Association
