[Margaret Pilkington]

I think that party politicians like to make mileage out of the results of the local elections, despite the fact that the two animals are only very lightly yoked together.
It is just another excuse to employ media hype and sling insults at one another - it benefits no-one...and certainly not the electorate.
It is generally the case, that at the midterm of a government, local elections will show that the opposition party are favoured. This is often regardless of the policies implemented by the governing party.

Many people vote blindly for a political party in both local and general elections......regardless of who can best do the job...and who can best do the job has as much relevance in local elections (probably more relevance when I think about it) as it does in general elections.

If by some chance we could take party politics out of local elections then I think (just maybe) more would get done locally...there would be none of this 'walking out' of meetings because a party didn't agree with what the ruling party were proposing.
More work would get done, more results would be achieved...there would be less mud slinging and in-fighting.