“Voting is something people lost their lives for, so even if you feel disenfranchised and disillusioned, I still think it’s really important.”
Anthony, 53, is the first voter I come across at 8.05am outside Old Trafford Sports Barn.
This local leisure centre has turned into a polling station for the day in the northernmost ward of Trafford Metropolitan Borough Council.
Today, Trafford residents will elect one third of their local councillors in the borough that was this week found to have the lowest levels of voter trust in the local council in all of Greater Manchester.
A survey carried out by Sortiton for the Local Democracy Reporting Service in April found that 42% of Trafford respondents had low levels of trust in the council, with 29% of respondents stating they had “no trust in them at all”.
By comparison, in the same survey only 16% of respondents in the neighbouring Manchester City Council area said they had low trust in their council and just 8% stated they had “no trust in them at all”.
Voters like Anthony are still turning out to cast their vote despite admitting they feel their trust in the council’s ability to make real change is low.
He said: “I don’t really trust the council to deal with the more specific local issues.
“They have so many budgetary problems, I think their priority at the moment is to try and make money to get themselves out of that particular hole, so the more local concerns about issues like parking are not being addressed.”
Danielle, 55, arriving shortly after Anthony, shared his concern around the impact of budget constraints.
She said: “I’d say I moderately trust the present council to deliver on changes, but I know they’re under pressure to provide more and more social care, and they have financial pressures, they’ve had budgets slashed.
“The individual councillors, I’ve seen them trying hard on certain issues and not very hard on others.”
Held by the Conservative party from 2004-2018, Trafford has been Labour-controlled since 2019.
Much like the national government, it has been hampered by budget and economic constraints which some voters believe have prevented Labour from being able to deliver on promises.
Facing a budget gap of £12.8million and whispers about potential bankruptcy, Trafford raised council tax by 7.49% for 2026/27, a move which has been highly unpopular locally.
While some voters seemed disillusioned on a local level, others told me they felt hopeful of affecting change in a local election which they feel comes at a crucial time for the country.
Outside the Stretford Leisure Centre polling station in neighbouring Gorse Hill & Cornbrook Ward, Kannathasan, 39, a support worker in the NHS, said: “I came to vote today because it’s my right to vote.
“I didn’t vote in the last local election, or general election, but I want to contribute to this country’s growth.
“It seems like the UK is going backwards. I want the UK moving forward.”
Charlene, 24, said: “I’ve come out to vote today because I’ve always voted. I feel like right now is a very tough time politically, and it’s more important to vote now than ever.”
Trafford, with it’s internal north/south divide of an urban, multiethnic, but economically deprived North, and an affluent, suburban, more ethnically homogeneous South, appears to reflect the current political currents within the country.
In this year’s local elections, certain seats have become key targets for both the Green Party and Reform UK, who are hoping to capitalise on the growing disillusionment with the Labour-led council.
In Old Trafford, the Green Party were Labour’s closest contenders for a seat in 2024, gaining 1011 votes to Labour’s 1941, with the Conservatives trailing distantly into third with 144.
This year, following the Green’s success in the nearby Gorton and Denton parliamentary by-election, the race is expected to be much closer.
Charlene said: “I used to vote Labour in local and general elections, but I feel disappointed with them, especially as a young person.
“I feel like Labour promised a lot of things that they haven’t delivered. That’s why I voted Green today.
“I think the local elections are a good indicator of the direction the country is going in more generally.”
Another voter who spoke about national priorities having an impact on their local vote was warehouse worker Chi, 42, a Hong Kong national who has lived in the UK for four years.
He told me he voted in the last general and local elections, but has this time changed the party he voted for due to their policies on immigration.
He said: “I see a lot of people coming to the country by boat and costing the country money.
“I came from Hong Kong and I work, and I think everybody should work and everyone should pay tax.
“If they don’t, that’s unfair. I’m voting differently now to change that.”
Despite the sense of frustration with some specific areas of local and national policy, the voters I spoke to seemed to share the opinion that overall, life in this part of Trafford has got better and safer over the past 5 years.
Ishtiaq, 56, said: “There are a lot of small issues affecting the area – the roads, the potholes – but for the more important problems, things have got better.
“In my area especially, there are a lot of younger people, guys, taking drugs. I live in a multi-story building, and before there were lots of them in the stairwells, coming from outside and doing drugs.
“I have disabilities and don’t get to go out much, so what happens near my home is very important to me.
“Over the last few years, the area has got a lot better. The police come here more and they listen more to our problems.”
The perception of improved safety in Old Trafford was shared by Anthony.
“I have to say that walking the streets around here is a lot safer nowadays than it was when I was younger.
“I’ve lived round here most of my life, and it’s definitely much safer now.
“I’m not sure if that’s down to the council, or thanks to the local police, or whether people are just more civilised nowadays. I definitely don’t believe it’s the last one!”
When asked why they believe some of these issues have improved, residents shared a sense of being listened to more under the Labour council than they were under the Conservative-led council, who were perceived as neglecting North Trafford in favour of the richer, Conservative-voting wards in the south of the borough.
Danielle said: “I think in the last five years or so we’ve been listened to much more.
“With the previous majority, there were other much more affluent wards who got much more attention than us.”
Anthony echoed this.
“I absolutely think that people in this area don’t get listened to as much as people in Bowdon, Altrincham, or Timperley,” he said.
“They don’t seem to have the same problems round there. They aren’t as densely populated, but there is a belief locally that departments like parking enforcement pay a lot more attention to what goes on down there.”
For all the frustration voiced outside Trafford’s polling stations over council tax rises, immigration, public services and broken promises, many voters still spoke about one thing with certainty: the importance of being heard.
In a borough increasingly divided politically and geographically, these elections were not just about who runs the council next, but about which communities feel listened to at all.
Featured image: The entrance to the polling station at Stretford Leisure Centre on polling day for the May 2026 local elections. Image by Carly Lyes for MM.
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