Illustration by Michael Villegas / Ikon Images If nothing is happening, why keep electing the same old faces? Why not try someone new? This is the mood music against which millions will cast their vote on Thursday 7 May 2026. After all, more than 50 per cent of us have little trust in our local councillors . Local elections are not decided by bin collections. If they were, the party offering weekly rather than fortnightly or three-weekly collections would win a landslide. Instead, local contests tend to follow the national mood. In 2013, Ukip secured more than a hundred council seats on the back of immigration – which was then, as now, a central concern for many voters. Newly elected councillors spoke almost sheepishly to cameras about residents citing potholes as their reason for voting. Yet those same candidates had been mandated to campaign on claims that 29 million Romanians and Bulgarians would soon gain the right to live and work in Britain “and draw benefits here”.…