The media focus is on the general election – but there are some big local election battles coming too

On Easter Sunday, I thought I would put politics aside for a couple of hours and settled down to watch The Godfather. But for many of us it’s not so easy to get away from the day job, of course. Scorsese’s masterpiece is a film admired for its complex and fascinating sub plots – and I couldn’t help thinking that similarly, while the national media has been almost exclusively focused on the General Election, the other story of this year’s election season will be the local elections. These are the biggest set of local elections in four years and up and down the country thousands of candidates will be creating narratives of their own.

In the general election the Greens have been cast as the idealistic plucky outsider, but in the locals the Greens will be defending their four year record of running Brighton Council. And what a record to have to defend: they have failed to set a budget; their group has split; rubbish hasn’t been collected and in a twist worthy of Hitchcock the country’s only Green council has reduced recycling rates.

When the national media turns its attention to Kent, it’s to talk about the Farage’s odious attempt to make it to Westminster from Thanet. But in the local elections the real story is about the Tories desperately defending key councils Dover and Medway from formidable Labour Campaigns.

In the General Election marginal seats Labour will also be campaigning to take control of the Council in places like Erewash, Swindon and Cheshire West and Chester.

One to watch as the counts come in on the Friday morning will be West Lancashire, the country’s most perfectly poised council which currently has 27 Labour seats and 27 Tory seats.

Amongst the five Mayoral elections the Mayor of Leicester is Labour’s only incumbent but we will also be serious contenders in Bedford, Mansfield and Middlesbrough, where Robocop is stepping down.

Over the next few days the national parties will be launching their General Election manifestos, local Labour parties have already launched a wealth of inspiring and practical manifestos that set out clear visions for their local areas.

Local elections often provide more drama than the General Election. The last time this set of seats were up for election, Bury’s count proved decisively that every vote can count and every action you take or don’t take in a local campaign can decide who wins. With the seats balanced at 25 Labour and 25 Tory Labour’s Joanne Columbine won the determining 51^st seat by drawing lots.

Long after the votes have been cast, seats taken and the stories told these local elections will matter. Alongside our local election launch on Tuesday, the Shadow Cabinet and local government leaders will sign a memorandum of understanding setting out Labour’s devolution plans. More than ever we will need Labour councils to deliver this ambitious agenda.

On Tuesday Labour launched their local election campaign in Leeds. Leeds is now a Labour council (it wasn’t four years ago). Back then it was run by a Liberal Democrat and Conservative coalition that had left Leeds quite literally in a mess. The bins hadn’t been collected for 8 weeks because the Coalition council was in dispute with their bin collectors, the council had no strategy for getting the city out of the recession – with a record number of young people not in employment or education – and, worst of all, the council’s child protection services were so poor that the Government was forced to intervene. Today Leeds is a beacon council lead by Labour’s Keith Wakefield. They are a key player in the Leeds city region that developed the country’s first city deal, which brought investment and jobs to the city, they are on their way to becoming a city with no NEETs and last week Ofsted announced that Leeds Council’s children services are vastly improved under the “Outstanding leadership” of the Deputy Labour Group leader Judith Blake.

Local politics may not have the pyrotechnics and glamour that Hollywood has to offer and that has, sometimes, made some people think it doesn’t matter. But while Hollywood stars are lining up to play the parts of those who make a difference, our councillors and the people who support them are doing the real thing – day in, day out. To all of the Labour candidates standing in the local elections in May – I did enjoy my Easter Sunday evening but even the Godfather has nothing on you.