'Issues that matter' is why local elections matter, says Herts politics lecturer
Residents across the three counties were yesterday invited to vote in local and crime commissioner elections
Voting came to a close late last night in local elections and police and crime commissioner elections across Buckinghamshire, Bedfordshire and Hertfordshire.
The counts kicked start in the middle of the night for most, with results expected throughout the day, while others will be announced tomorrow.
While general elections tend to see a bigger voting turnout, Ben Nutt, a Politics and International Lecturer at the University of Hertfordshire argued local elections are just as important.
He said: "We have this distinction within political science academia between first order and second order elections, with general elections being these first order elections, the most important ones, and then local elections and crime Commissioners as second order and less important ones."
"And that's a big irony in British politics, because they have a really big impact, local elections are really important."
"If you think about the issues that really matter to people in their day-to-day lives, whether that's education, health, schools, roads, services, building and planning, or transport, all of these decisions are determined at local level by local councils."
"Different parties will have different priorities for your local area, whether that service spending, reducing crime, reducing healthcare waits, or school structures, so it's massively important to to have a decision on how your local administration spends the central money that the national government distribute out to local authorities."
What councils held elections?
In Buckinghamshire, a full council election was held for the city of Milton Keynes, while a singular seat was up for grabs at Winslow Town Council.
Across Hertfordshire elections were held in District and Borough Councils.
Who are the police and crime commissioners?
Alongside council elections were police and crime commissioner elections, in which residents were given a say over who their next representative for policing budgets and priorities would be.
The role of police commissioner was first introduced in 2012, with former Hertfordshire commissioner David Lloyd holding the position since its creation and stepping down in this round of elections, while current Thames Valley Police commissioner Matthew Barber, and Bedfordshire commissioner Festus Akinbusoye were standing again.