BBC News, West Midlands
BBCRising bus fares, the environment and the cost of living were some of the issues students said matter most to them ahead of the upcoming local elections.
Thousands of young people will be eligible to vote for the first time on 1 May – but some said they will not. One man said it had fallen to the bottom of his priorities.
Students at the University of Warwick spoke about whether they would vote or not and what the issues were that mattered to them.
Naomi Carter, 24, said there was both a lack of awareness and “disillusionment” about the local elections, as people had thought there would be a “revolution” following the results of the general election last year.
Ms Carter, a welfare and campaigns officer for the university and who just graduated from a sustainable development degree, said she planned to vote.
“I always said I could vote in every election I could,” she said. “Potentially my great grandmothers could have died for me to have the right to vote, so I better exert it.”
Some people were not fully aware of what a council does for them, she added.
“Especially if you’ve got local councils and district councils and all sorts and the county council as well, I think it’s just difficult for people to know why it feels relevant to them,” she explained.
“If it’s the huge election like the general election, you hear so much coverage of it, you know how important it is, but I think as it gets distilled down, people are less and less aware of why it’s important and whose running.”
Students at Warwick University would be eligible to vote in the Warwickshire County Council elections, depending on where they live.
The council is responsible for waste management, although not roadside bin collections, and are also in charge of education and transport and social care.
Nathaniel Gate, 21, lives in Leamington Spa, Warwickshire, and does not yet know if he will be voting – or who he would vote for.
“Alongside all of my university responsibilities, I think it falls more or less to the bottom of my priorities,” he said.
The marketing and strategy masters student, who has lived in the area for four years, said “things were so static” voting was a “bit of a moot point”.
Asked what mattered the most to him, he said the key issues had always been local buses.
“Currently me and my friends here are now going to go to my car, because i’ve had to bring my car up from home which is costing me quite a bit of money,” he said.
He said it cost £3 each way for the journey to campus but parking cost £8.50. But now he has a staff job on campus he can park for free.
As the university was campus based, the only options for students who did not live on campus were to live in Canley, Coventry, or Leamington Spa.
“It takes about an hour on average to get from wherever you are in Leamington. The bus itself takes about half an hour, but waiting for the bus, that’s the big issue,” he said.
“Most university courses have a huge problem with attendance which I think would be massively helped if there was way more emphasis on making the transport and the buses way better.”
First year management student Amro Maraqa, 18, said bus fare increases had affected him.
“Bus fares went up by 90p this year, from £2 to £2.90,” he said.
“Which was not something I was expecting as it was kind of a hefty jump within a single year.”
As an international student, he was not sure if he was eligible to vote, but he said his other main concerns were around the cost of living and the environment, including waste management.
Raphael Roy Taylor, 20, is in his second year of a politics and history degree and said he “would absolutely be voting”.
He said there should be more funding in the arts.
“We’ve got two different council areas. We’re both representing Warwickshire but we’re also a university that’s based in Coventry,” he explained.
“We’re in rich privileged Warwickshire, half of it is in Coventry, I think we need to be really engaging with the regeneration fund for Coventry City Centre.”
Sasha King-Smith, 21, just graduated with a politics degree and said it was “really important” for students to vote.
She said she had always voted in the local elections and went to the polls for the first time during the local elections in 2021- on the day she celebrated her 18th birthday.
Ms King-Smith, who is the union’s democracy and development officer, spoke of how the key issues for her were the environment and inclusivity, alongside the cost of living.
“Even just trying to breathe. Existing, studying, everything costs money, also with the recent fee increases we’re going to see students unhappy about that,” she said.
“For the bus pass to get us to campus, my first year I think it was £325 and now it’s like £410,” she added. “It increases massively every year.”
Daniel Eggleton, 20, is in his second year of studying Maths and has voted in the general election in the past.
But he said he found it tricky to vote for candidates who he thought were”morally reproachable” and at the local elections, he wanted to vote for those who deemed “honourable and upright.”
“I think having people with a good sound set of ethics is very important to me,” he explained.
“I want someone who is going to say what they’re going to do and keep up with what they’re going to do.”
You can find a full list of candidates standing in the council elections here.
