I will be meeting with the reporter/producer of BBC Radio 4′s World Tonight’s programme later today to discuss next week’s local elections from a Walsall perspective.

I always get a bit concerned about such meetings as they invariably seem to come with an agenda in mind and certainly the initial conversation yesterday did seem to be more about Westminster than about Walsall and more to the point from our perspective what’s going on in New Invention and Short Heath.

The media seem obsessed with this election being a referendum on the Coalition Government.  This election will not change the government at Westminster. It will decide who will represent the views of local people in Walsall’s Council Chamber. It will decide the standard of service local people get from their councillor. 

As I made this point to the BBC’s representative we talked about some of the issues that the Lib Dems in Willenhall have been involved in along with local residents as we try to address the long standing issue of the East/West inequalities which means that there is an 8 year gap in life expectancy across the borough. These inequalities don’t just affect health, they manifest themselves in early years development, education, job prospects and provision for older people.

We want to see decision making brought closer to the people giving them a say in how their council tax £’s are spent through the local Area Partnerships. We know we can’t alter the total budget which for Walsall is around £0.8 billion gross but local people should have a say in how that budget is spent in their area.

As Liberal Democrat councillors we practice what we preach and it’s this aspect of what we do that I’m going to try to get across the BBC’s representative today. Things like how we were able to help local residents in the Stroud Avenue area to influence a planning application to develop a former public house site to take their views into account. A spin off from this will be some provision for 8 to 13 year olds on a nearby green space.

Whilst we are in that area we will also look at the opportunities for providing a much needed GP’s practice and retirement homes, how we can influence local bus operators to satisfy the need for public transport links to the two local hospitals which we identified from a recent survey we carried out in one of our regular Focus newsletters which go out all year round not just at election time.

This and so much more. I just wonder how much of this the reporter will be able to get across in what will inevitably be not much more than a couple of minutes slot and how much of it will be sacrificed to get across the predetermined agenda centred around Westminster. Perhaps I’m being cynical.