Last year, Middleton Independents Party came from nowhere to become the third largest group on Rochdale council, taking five seats at the borough’s first ‘all out’ elections in nearly 20 years. The fledgling party - whose ‘Think Middleton before Rochdale’ slogan tapped into a feeling the town had become the poor relation to its larger neighbour - was left celebrating an historic result.
But acrimony would soon follow when one of its new councillors immediately defected to Labour, claiming MIP was more right wing than he had realised and later branding them ‘unprofessional’. Tensions between the parties have seldom been far from the surface as the municipal year has worn on, locking horns over the town’s new masterplan and the running of its market.
But this time around it would seem all parties standing in Middleton’s five wards - also including the Lib Dems and Conservatives - have one opponent in common: voter disengagement and distrust. The Local Democracy Reporting Service headed to Middleton Gardens, in the town centre, to gauge what people were thinking ahead of this year’s ballot - and the feeling of apathy was palpable.
