With the Douglas Council and Onchan Commissioners by-elections next month, we asked people on the street about voting in local authority elections.

Do they vote? How important do they think they are? And what sort of issues make them want to engage in the process?

Paula Gelling, 52, Douglas, does vote in local elections.

However, she says she hasn’t received any information on the forthcoming Douglas Council elections.

Asked whether she thought people were less likely to be engaged in the local elections compared to those for the House of Keys, she said: ’It depends on what agenda they’ve got, so if they need the dog poo picking up outside their house they’re going to be engaged more with the local elections.

’Whereas they might not think they can make an influence in terms of legislation with the MHKs.’

Gary Weightman, 59, Douglas, says there are only three times where he has needed to engage with the commissioners in 30 years, for specific issues like planning.

He does, however, always vote in the House of Keys elections.

He went on to say: ’I think there are too many local authorities, that’s the problem - there’s too many layers of governance in the island.’

He agreed that people may struggle to figure out who is responsible for what in the local authorities, saying: ’I think sometimes people do find it difficult - whether it’s a central government issue or a local authority issue - and I think sometimes both of them use the other to say: "That’s nothing to do with us".’

Suzie, from Douglas, says that for to vote for a candidate in local elections: ’They’ve got to have a passion.

’I look at the old Deemsters in the island, they’ve always been worthy of their positions and they really cared about the people.’

Becca, also from Douglas, agreed with Suzie that social media is the best way to engage voters, because ’Everyone is on some form of social media these days’.

Emma Quirk, 39, Port Erin, thinks it’s very important to vote in the local elections.

When asked if she thinks that people are less engaged with the local authority elections than those for MHKs, she said: ’Possibly, but maybe only because they don’t understand what the local authority can do for them.

’But I think you should be interested in your local community and local politics, as well as bigger politics.

’I think people need to take responsibility to vote and then you can hold elected officials to account.’

When we spoke to Vanessa Edwards, 58, she was planning to attend a Douglas Council surgery the next day.

She is interested social issues, saying: ’I am hugely interested the way mental health is currently being discussed, for example in relation to the workplace.’

She added: ’I recently met a candidate who will be running for commissioner and had an immensely interesting conversation with him, I’d support him all the way because of his views on social issues - his passion is housing.’

’I think change and progression is imperative in any society, especially because of issues around Covid-19.’