Why we need to put local issues at the heart of the local elections - Andrew Vine

And that viewpoint downplays the importance of these elections, when people’s minds should be focussed squarely on local and regional issues, and not who might form the next Government.

Maintaining that focus is especially important here in Yorkshire because Thursday takes us another step towards the people of our county determining what is best for the places where we live and the businesses that build the region’s prosperity.

North Yorkshire is voting for its first elected mayor, who will join counterparts in West and South Yorkshire, which means devolved powers gathering yet more momentum and the long-overdue prospect of investment tailored to this region’s needs moving closer.

Thursday should not be seen as a rehearsal or proxy for a national vote. It matters far too much in its own right to be regarded as hardly more than a glorified opinion poll.

As local elections always do, it will provide a snapshot of the mood among voters and nobody needs to be a fortune-teller to predict that the Conservatives are likely to lose a lot of council seats.

Many in the party, and most of those I know who have been out canvassing, acknowledge as much and they are braced for it igniting another round of infighting at Westminster.

But any implications for what may happen later in the year are of secondary importance.

All over our county, there are pressing issues that need to be addressed, including transport, deprivation and creating the right environment to allow businesses to do well, and they can best be tackled at a local and regional level.

That’s what we should be thinking about, but some of the campaigning, in my neck of the woods at least, has laid too much emphasis on the national picture.

I’ve talked to several Labour canvassers who have very rapidly moved on from telling me what their candidates would do for my neighbourhood to what Sir Keir Starmer would like to do for it.

With all due respect to him, Sir Keir won’t be stopping the fly-tipping that regularly blights the local woods, sorting out the traffic snarl-ups that make the morning and evening commute an ordeal or ensuring there’s a reliable and frequent bus service.

In time, he may lead a government that boosts the abilities of mayors and councils to do such things, but for now these are issues that have to be tackled down here on the ground by elected representatives who know their patches, understand the problems and find ways to address residents’ concerns.

Sir Keir’s name is not being brought up everywhere in Yorkshire. In areas with a substantial Muslim population, his stance on the conflict in the Middle East has prompted candidates to emphasise their local credentials rather than their party’s national policies.

I’ve politely deflected a couple of Labour canvassers from telling me about Sir Keir to ask instead about a few issues that matter on my street and come up regularly on the online neighbourhood forum.

We’ll all have the opportunity soon enough to have our say on who should run the country, but too many people fail to give the same attention to electing those whose job is to keep our communities safe, pleasant and well-run places to live.

More than ever before, people ought to be engaging with these polls, raising their concerns, scrutinising what candidates are saying and getting out to vote for those who have the right answers.

And that does not necessarily mean voting for the major parties. In these elections, independent candidates have a level playing field.

Far from being apathetic, the voters of Yorkshire who can’t be bothered to turn out ought to wake up to the fact that this is an exciting, even optimistic, era for our county when localism and regionalism are in the ascendant and we all have a chance to benefit.

These elections are not a poor relation to a national poll. They matter greatly, representing the opportunity to set a course into a better and brighter future thanks to devolved powers and to make our cities, towns and villages the places we want them to be.