What the council parties stand for in Richmond on Thames

https://cabnet.richmond.gov.uk/mgElectionElectionAreaResults.aspx?EID=500000006&RPID=621662155 - outcome added.

Leaflets told me that my council candidates are nice people pushing for local things, but not much more.

• I think every council has huge costs for social care and some educational needs
• I think every council gets their cash from dodgy parking rules enforced by Capita.
• I don't see leaflets about how the system works or how the borough is doing better or worse than others.There is an internal document which looks sensible. Maybe AI searches could find out more about it. Account "notes" are apparently the things to look out for.
  richmond.gov.uk/media/epafe3cl/budget_book_2026_27.pdf
  

(Since a dozen people read this for the election I see Damien Talks Money: Council Tax - A Hidden Crisis on a similar subject. Using the Ask > Summerise button I got the paragraphs at the end of the page)

I did an AI search to find out more from a party political angle - details below, which the search partly got from
teddington.nub.news/news/local-news/here-is-what-each-party-is-promising-in-richmonds-local-elections-294610

The Green Party puts its more general policy leaflets online as a manifesto, which seems a good system 
rtgp.org.uk/local-manifesto/ There is an archived pdf version. 

Leaflets have got better over the years, with less nonsensical phrases like "fighting for local people" even if they avoid saying much about what the council does, and tend to promote the nimby interest. Here are some suggestions for improving the system:

1. in a TV news area, different councils could resign at different times until maybe a national law does it for them. The idea is that about two councils in an area have an election at the same time. That gives bloggers and media a chance to cover what's-up; whether they're sane or whether there's a council that needs voting-out or a really good opposition that needs voting-in.
2. councillors to tell voters what they stand for, overall, with a diagram of how council money is rasised and spent
3. councillors to put footnotes in their leaflets to show people how to look things up online

Anyway this is what an AI seach says about the candidates in Richmond on Thames.

For the upcoming Richmond upon Thames local elections on May 7, 2026, the major political parties have released their manifestos, promising to transform the borough over the next four years. [1, 2]

The Liberal Democrats have held the council since 2018, and all 54 seats are up for election. [1]

Liberal Democrats (Current Administration)

The Liberal Democrats are campaigning on their record of financial support and environmental action. [1]

• Housing: Increase the pipeline of over 1,000 social and affordable homes by unlocking small sites and buying back former council homes.
• Cost of Living: Launch a new Anti-Poverty Strategy and continue providing council tax reductions.
• Environment: Oppose Heathrow expansion and the Thames Water river abstraction scheme, while maintaining support for free travel for under-22s.
• Community: Launch a new rough sleeper hub and invest in family hubs and leisure facilities. [1, 2]

Green Party (Opposition)

The Green Party focuses on environmental sustainability, housing, and transparent decision-making. [1, 2]

• Environment: Aim to become the greenest council in London, with a target to be carbon neutral as a borough by 2043.
• Housing: Improve housing standards, stand up to bad landlords, and create more social housing.
• Community: Put "community first" by increasing participation in council decisions and tackling antisocial behaviour. [1, 2]

Conservative Party (no seats after past incumbancy)

The Conservative party in Richmond is focusing on crime, safety, and economic management. [1]

• Safety: Prioritise local policing, "make the borough's streets safe again," and oppose 20mph speed restrictions on main roads.
• Community: Tackle antisocial behaviour and provide more support for young people's mental and physical health. [1]
• When last in office they inherited an independent schools counselling service to do just that as required by law in schools. They removed its grant and allocated it to a catholic adoption agency that had been barred from offering adoption services because it refused to work with gay couples.
• When last in office their leaflets emphasised "award winning social services", but the award was for Richmond and Wandsworth councils merging admin services, not for the quality of the services provided. Provision was from a hard-to-find web site called Richmond Care and Support which looked independent and did not have the money to provide help for people leaving hospital on certain dates. It was just had a phone line that a hospital could ring forever.
• I don't know why they were voted-out, but the fact they lost every single seat says something.

Labour Party

While a formal consolidated manifesto may not have been published, candidates are campaigning on improving housing and supporting residents, with a focus on: [1]

• Cost of Living: Supporting residents through the economic crisis.
• Housing: Increasing the supply of affordable housing. [1, 2]

Reform UK

• Community: Focus on Hiring 10,000 new police officers, increasing stop-and-search to take knives and drugs out of neighbourhoods, and immediate justice sentences for offenders. [1] 

Current Council Priorities (2022-2026)

The current council corporate plan focuses on three pillars, which likely influence the platform of the incumbent administration:

• A Greener Borough: Tackling climate change, increasing recycling, and protecting green spaces.
• A Safer Borough: Maintaining the lowest crime rate in London, with a focus on tackling violence against women and girls.
• A Fairer Borough: Supporting residents through the cost-of-living crisis and becoming a "Borough of Sanctuary". [1]

There are three independent candidates, two linked by area -

North Richmond had two indendents who turned out to be Reform candidates by the time votes were counted and got similar support to other Reform candidates at about 360 votes or 10%

Barnes -
https://whocanivotefor.co.uk/person/135995/ivan-avanessov has some detail and
links to 
https://www.avanessov.com/

which gives an idea of what he's like and how he might vote on a committee. An AI search on his source code says the he's taken a very siimple template and expanded it by hand to make the web pages, backing-up his claim to be a real live person. The one page site showed a picture of him promising to represent Barnes only, saying he was in favour of various things including ducks and said that it should be legal to throw dumped dog poo at the dog owner. Now it has a page saying "A huge “Thank You” to everyone who supported me in this election. I got 105 votes and I shake your hand!"

This video by Damien Talks Money explores the "hidden crisis" of council tax in the UK, explaining why bills have risen by an average of 30.8% since 2020 and why public services often appear to be declining despite these increases.

Key Takeaways:

• The Calculation Mess: Council tax is based on property valuations from 1991 (in England/Scotland) or 2003 (in Wales), meaning modern property values are ignored (1:17-2:20).
• The Funding Shift: Following a decade of austerity where central government grants were heavily cut (3:38-4:37), local councils have become increasingly dependent on council tax revenue. While total funding has recently increased, it is being swallowed by rising statutory costs (7:45-10:07).
• The "Care Tax" Transformation: A significant portion of council budgets—often over 60%—is now legally required to be spent on adult and children’s social care (8:05-10:57). This leaves less money for "visible" services like bin collections, libraries, and street repairs (11:45-12:07).
• The Doom Loop: As councils struggle to fund social care, local areas decline, which can lead to reduced business rates and even higher demand for support services, creating a vicious cycle (12:07-13:26).
• Council Mismanagement: While structural funding issues are the primary driver, the video notes that some councils have exacerbated their financial troubles through poor investments and high-risk projects, leading to Section 114 notices (bankruptcy-like declarations) (13:26-14:37).

Proposed Solutions:

Damien argues that the current system is outdated, using a 20th-century property tax to fund a 21st-century national crisis. He suggests that social care should be funded more like the NHS—nationally funded and locally managed—to prevent poorer areas from falling into a cycle of decline and inequality (15:13-16:55).