Why are candidates for local elections are not judged on local issues?

In the long Streetlife conversation "Green Belt under the protection of Sir Paul Beresford?", I wrote at one point "Anyway, don't worry ... this is a safe seat; I have no doubt that on the 8th May Sir Paul will still be your MP."
 
And of course I was correct. Indeed, Sir Paul increased his share of the vote by 3.1%; though it may be noted that the Green Party increased its share by 3.8%, and UKIP by 6.1%. However, in case we get too excited by this, let's remember that these increases (even Labour increased its share by 1.3%) are almost entirely due to the collapse in the Liberal Democrat vote which fell by 14.3%. Only UKIP increased its share significantly more than would have been expected just by the Lib. Dem. collapse (and, arguably, the Green Party's increase was marginally more than may have been expected).
 
While the national collapse in the Lib. Dem. vote made no difference to our parliamentary representation, it certainly did to our local representation!
 
During that same conversation, Hilary P wrote:
"We lost an excellent Labour local councilor for north Leatherhead, who did far more for anyone of any political allegiance than some of our local councilors who do not live in our area, simply because the Labour Government was out of favour."
To which I responded?
"I agree the loss of Cllr Heather Ward in North Leatherhead several years ago was regrettable; this was yet another piece of collateral damage of the Bush-Blair invasion of Iraq."
 
On that occasion we lost a long-standing, hard-working councillor for reasons that had nothing whatever to do with local politics.. Last Thursday North Leatherhead saw the loss of another long-standing, hard-working councillor. Bridget Lewis-Carr was not defeated on local issues, but fell victim to the backlash against the Liberal Democrat Party nationally. Other Lib. Dem. councillors fell for the same reason - even the Lib. Dem. leader, David Preedy, losing out to the Conservatives by only four votes.
 
I am not a Lib. Dem. supporter per se, and vote for the candidate, not the party, at local elections. But it does seem to me there is something wrong when candidates for local elections are not judged on local issues.
 
I do not, however, begrudge Santiago Mondejar his win in North Leatherhead not that of the other new Conservative councillors. It was disappointing to see Cllr Howard Jones still carrying on the smears of the "old guard's" attack on Cherkley Campaign. Let's hope Santi and the new Conservative councillors will shake up the old guard and bring about greater openness and transparency in the workings of MVDC.