Worcester goes to the polls on Thursday and residents have a unique chance to shape the political make-up of the city.
This will be the first Worcester City Council election in which all 35 seats are up for grabs - previously, a third of councillors were chosen at a time in three out of four years.
That means sweeping changes to the political balance of the council are possible, rather than the incremental changes more typical of the old electoral system.
It's also the first election to take place since city-wide boundary changes came into force, increasing the number of wards in Worcester from 15 to 16.
What happened last year?
The city council election in May 2023 was a bad night for the Tories, who lost seven seats to become only the third biggest party in the Guildhall.
Labour won four seats to become the biggest party on the council with 13 seats and the Greens had five councillors elected on the night, enough to make them the second biggest party.
Under the council’s constitution, joint leaders from the two largest parties are elected if there is no overall political control.
For the past year, Labour’s Lynn Denham and the Green Party’s Marjory Bisset have been joint leaders - but both parties will be hoping they can win enough seats to get overall control of the council this time around.
Cllr Bisset is one of several sitting councillors not seeking re-election, along with former city council and current county council leader Simon Geraghty, Tom Piotrowski, Mohammed Altaf and Shafaz Ditta.
What are the new council wards?
Following a review of Worcester’s electoral map by the Local Government Boundary Commission for England (LGBCE), the city is now split into 16 wards as opposed to the previous 15.
Below are the names of the new wards, with links to the candidates standing in each, and how many councillors will represent each ward on the council. That number is also the number of votes each resident will be able to cast on their ballot paper.
Arboretum - 2
Battenhall - 2
Claines - 3
Fort Royal - 2
Leopard Hill - 2
Nunnery - 3
Rainbow Hill - 2
St Clement - 2
St John’s - 2
St Nicholas - 2
St Stephen - 2
When is the local election?
The city council election takes place on Thursday, May 2 between 7am and 10pm. 62 polling stations are operating in 50 venues across Worcester - you can find your local polling station on the city council website.
The votes will be counted on Friday - we'll bring you updates throughout the day and the result as soon as it's announced.
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