Among the new Reform UK councillors is Melandra Smith, who won one of the two Buxton seats. A fluent Japanese speaker, she was known as a local campaigner before she became involved in party politics.
She pushed for Buxton to have a town council and for repairs to its many potholes – as Britain’s highest market town, the weather often leaves its mark.
She was also heavily involved in a campaign to stop the University of Derby turning its now empty 274-room hall of residence in the town into dispersal accommodation for asylum seekers. The plan, announced in 2023, was opposed by thousands of people in Buxton and dropped by the university in 2024.
It was “a wake-up call for the town”, she says.
The mother of two acknowledges her local profile helped her electorally, but says that, increasingly, people are contacting her about illegal immigration.
“The university halls are still not being used for anything and there are other large buildings in Buxton that are not currently in use and [people] worry, ‘Will they turn it into one of these dispersal centres?’ I get a lot of questions about this. Sometimes it’s a little bit irrational, too much of a worry.”
Those ongoing fears, she feels, are, however, a consequence of government policies “because there doesn’t seem to be any thoughtful plan nationally to deal with the people coming in illegally”.
On Spring Gardens, Buxton’s main shopping street, people hark back to a bygone age.
At first glance, the High Street appears to be holding up well in comparison with many towns. A steady stream of tourists means there are a raft of coffee shops and bakeries and few empty premises. However, “there’s nothing we actually need”, says Yvonne, 50, looking around at the local shopfronts.
“If you need to buy children’s clothes and shoes, there’s nothing.” Her disappointment at what is happening locally is exacerbated by the national picture.
“I haven’t got faith in anything anymore – there is nobody out there that is offering me any hope. They tell you one thing and do something else, so it doesn’t matter who you decide [to vote for].”
That sentiment of powerlessness, hopelessness even, permeates many conversations. Older people do not want illegal immigrants in their town, in their country, but feel they cannot stop them. And they feel similarly impotent over what they do want – a bustling High Street, a new medical centre. Plans for a £20m health hub for Buxton, for instance, failed to get government funding in 2023, leaving the proposed site derelict and unsightly.
