I HAVE been thinking for some time about ‘independent’ candidates in politics.

Why don’t all candidates for town and parish councils stand for election without expressing a party affiliation?

The reality is that most town or parish council work is not party political in that there is no Labour or Conservative policy on allotments, maintaining town halls or many other issues that town councils deal with.

The politics that does arise tends to be of the petty personal kind.

My experience is that the infighting is far worse at town council level, than at Cheshire East Council level, where party politics is openly acknowledged.

This is the first problem I have with ‘independents’ – that the personal infighting that occurs without party discipline is worse than what happens when differences of opinion are openly acknowledged and discussed in an organised way.

I would also point out that the so-called independent councillors form an ‘independents’ group on Cheshire East Council, with a group leader and so lose all the claimed benefits of independence from a party discipline, but don’t gain the benefits of a proper structure.

Sam Corcoran Cheshire