WITH just three seats separating the two largest political parties, changes to ward boundaries and the ever-growing concerns about Brexit, the fight for Carlisle City Council is too close to call.

On Thursday voters across the city will mark their ballots in local polling stations, deciding who will be elected in the newly created 13 wards. A total of 113 candidates will fight for 39 seats on the council.

Carlisle City Council currently consists of 24 Labour councillors, 22 Conservative councillors, one Liberal Democrat and five independents.

The leader of the council is Labour’s Colin Glover. He said: “We want to improve our leisure facilities. We have supplied the Old Fire Station and we want to provide new pools. We recognise that leisure and culture facilities support both economic growth and health and wellbeing, that is an important area for us. The 61-year-old also pledges to keep the streets clean and improve local facilities.

“A few weeks ago we launched a climate change emergency. We need to look at our aim of being carbon neutral by 2030. We want to increase the number of electric charging points and improve the infrastructure, to encourage more people to switch to electric vehicles.”

Labour would introduce four points initially, rising to 15 when demand requires. Mr Glover added that his party wants to continue supporting Carlisle’s high street, as well as building on the city’s programme of events.

They also pledge to provide good quality homes for sale and rent. Labour also promises to keep the streets clean and to focus on local play areas.

Speaking about the Conservative vision for the city was leader of the Carlisle City Council group, John Mallinson. He said: “A big part of what we want to do is revive the city centre and the free parking offer is part of that. We want to try and revive the high streets in Carlisle, Longtown and Brampton.

We think there is a bright future for city centre retail, but we need to help. We want discounted rates to help those businesses, particularly small ones.”

The Tories are also keen to follow in the footsteps of Copeland mayor, Mike Starkie.

Mr Mallinson continued: “We also want to give grants to businesses to spend on their shop fronts, Mike Starkey has been very successful with it and we want to implement it too.”

Last week the Conservative Group pledged to offer free parking after 3pm in all council-owned car parks in the city centre, all year round. Mr Mallinson also emphasised that these elections should be about local issues, not about how parties are performing in Westminster.

Dr Helen Davison, chairwoman of Carlisle and District Green Party, and candidate in Belah and Kingmoor ward, said: “We have a Green candidate in every ward in this election. We currently have no Green councillors locally. So we would encourage everyone to give one of their three votes to the Greens to allow us to have some fresh and independent voices on the council who will really ensure our climate crisis is kept on the agenda whilst also ensuring that changes we make protect the most vulnerable in our society too.”

Independent councillor Jack Paton said: “Whatever the electorate want, that is what we push for. We fight for the people. I don’t count myself as a politician, I count myself as a spokesman for the people.

“We are never told by a party how to vote, that is how it should be. If the people want us to carry on they will vote for us, if they are not happy they won’t. The people are the most important thing in the city.”

UKIP Cumbria chairwoman and candidate for Longtown and the Border, Fiona Mills, said: “We feel that locally and nationally the main parties have let the public down, they promise one thing and they don’t deliver. Also, with the incinerator up at Kingmoor the residents are against it but the city and county council want to go ahead anyway, we think there should be a local referenda with things like that.”

UKIP also pledged to reduce business rates and extend the free hour parking with a disc to two hours, as well as to look at the possibility of providing free city centre parking, after a business assessment is undertaken.

Speaking about Cumbria First’s plans for Carlisle, leader Jonathan Davies said: “In Carlisle we think transport is a key issue, we want to see a multi-layered transport plan. We want to see a review, there is the potential for new unmanned stations to be set up, which would reduce the need for people to drive into the city centre.

“We want to increase the number of people coming into the city centre, but not increase the number of cars coming into the city centre. People are concerned about traffic queues in the city, they feel we need to review that.

“We will push for a review into traffic management in Carlisle and look at different modes of transport in the city. We will also look to help small businesses on the high street, calling for a review on rates as well as business support to help parties in areas such as Denton Holme.”

Cumbria First are proposing to abolish Cumbria County Council, returning the powers held by the body to each of the six local authorities in the county.

The party would like instead to see a "collaborative" approach to Cumbrian issues, with each of the six local authorities having full autonomy but working closely together on matters affecting the whole county.

The News & Star attempted to contact representatives from the Liberal Democrats, but were unable to reach them.