The battle to control Winchester

Get off the train at Winchester and you could be forgiven for thinking you are in the kind of place that Richard Curtis would use as a backdrop to portray his somewhat idealised vision of modern Britain.

The Hampshire cathedral city is absolutely crammed full of lovely old buildings and, on a Tuesday morning at least, seemed to be a place of old fashioned good manners.

But beneath this genteel surface there is a battle on to control the local council, though you wouldn't know it strolling around the centre. There wasn't a poster in sight.

The Liberal Democrats hold 26 council seats and the Conservatives 22. Labour have just three.

Since David Cameron became Tory leader his party have been specifically targeting Lib Dem seats and voters.

Winchester is precisely the sort of city that Conservatives need to regain if they are to be able to continue claiming their party is undergoing a revival.

Talk to the voters, or the local politicians for that matter, and a range of local issues are raised - the council tax, planning policies, rural transport.

Local issues?

But there is a further issue which gets raised from time to time and that is the fact the "very popular" local Lib Dem MP, Mark Oaten, was caught up in a male prostitute scandal earlier this year.

The current Lib Dem leader of the council Sheila Campbell concedes that issue does come up on the doorstep.

"One person I met was rude about Oaten and consequently to me, and the rest said 'what a pity about Mark, he's such a good MP, I hope he recovers from this'."

The leader of the Conservative group on Winchester City Council, George Beckett said Mr Oaten had come up "quite a lot".

"There's no doubt there's disappointment. A lot of the support for the Liberal Democrats was based on Mr Oaten and a lot of that support has now evaporated," he said.

In the city centre we asked a series of Winchester residents what they thought the local issues were.

Chris Trevett said he planned to vote Lib Dem on the 4 May although he added that he did not think it made "lot of difference who gets in".

On Mr Oaten he said: "I think his private life has nothing to do with it. He has done a lot for this town."

Julie Walters said she had no intention of voting, branding politicians "a bunch of kids" and adding she didn't "give a monkeys about what Mark Oaten has done".

Louis Nicholson, who at 18 is about to cast his first vote, said he was a student studying English in Winchester though he added he was not sure if he would vote there or from his parents' address.

"I support the Tories. I think their policies are the best locally," before saying his vote would not be influenced by what he considered to be a personal issue.

Susan Gillett, who lives in Spain but has applied for a postal vote, said: "I hope the Conservatives will win." On Mr Oaten's conduct she added: "There's too much of it around why can't people be normal these days?"

Vulnerable?

Joanne Hammond, who was in the middle of feeding son Luke, said she thought Mr Oaten was a good MP but she might consider voting Conservative at the next general election but only because of the direction of the Tories under David Cameron.

Locally she said she would "probably vote for the Lib Dems as I am happy the way they run things".

But she added: "I think the Lib Dems are vulnerable because of Mr Oaten and in any case I think there is a swing towards the Tories."

Nicole McHugo, at 18 another first time voter, said: "I am going to vote Lib Dem. I think they have done quite well. I live on an estate and they have provided facilities for the younger teenagers to use.

"As for Mark Oaten it was a long time ago, everyone makes mistakes."

Only one person in the city centre mentioned the Labour Party and that was Peter Dickson who said he was "acutely disappointed in New Labour and I vote Lib Dem to keep the Tories out".

He added the Liberal Democrats had a "good profile" and were "hard working".

"They get their fingers out. They are the people who you see in pubs, bring around leaflets."

So what did the leaders of the two biggest groups on the council think about their chances on 4 May?

For the Conservatives, Mr Beckett said his party was working hard, taking nothing for granted and was "very optimistic but not overly confident".

Lib Dem rival, Mrs Campbell, said: "We offer good value for money, we have been running Winchester for a number of years and we want to keep doing the job."

The leader of the Labour group on Winchester Council, Patrick Davies, said: "There does seem to be an Oaten effect in this election but equally there is no great enthusiasm for David Cameron's Tories.

Labour is concentrating on issues that matter to local people such as cleaner streets and tackling anti-social behaviour more effectively."