Is there a local election in my area today?

Voters in England and Wales will cast their ballots today.

Jimmy Nsubuga
Updated ·6 min read
A man walks past a polling station sign outside Selby Community Centre in Selby North Yorkshire, during voting for the Selby and Ainsty by-election, called following the resignation of incumbent MP Nigel Adams. Picture date: Thursday July 20, 2023. (Photo by Danny Lawson/PA Images via Getty Images)
Voters in England and Wales are set to cast their ballots next week. (Getty)

The local and mayoral elections are here, with voters in England and Wales set to cast their ballots throughout the day day.

This year, new councillors, mayors and police and crime commissioners will be chosen through polls in the two UK nations.

New legislation will also require voters to have photo ID, with the government saying this is necessary to combat the risk of in-person voter fraud. This will be the second time the requirements are enforced in England, following last year's local elections.

In total, 10 metro mayors will be elected in England, with areas such as Greater Manchester, the East Midlands, the North East, and York and North Yorkshire among them.

However, the biggest contest will arguably occur in London, where Labour's Sadiq Khan is vying for re-election. His main opponent is the Conservative candidate Susan Hall. A full list of candidates can be found here.

Nearly 2,700 council seats in England are up for grabs across 107 local authorities on 2 May, while 37 police and crime commissioners in England and Wales will be chosen.

Polls are also taking place to elect some of the most high-profile mayors in the country, including Greater Manchester, London and the West Midlands.

Where this year's local elections are taking place. (PA)
Where this year's local elections are taking place. (PA)

District councils, which are in charge of services such as bin collections and parks, are responsible for more than half of the elections next week.

Seats are also up for grabs in 31 metropolitan boroughs, such as Manchester, Leeds and Sheffield. Also, 18 unitary authorities, including Dorset and Bristol, will also hold elections.

The Labour and Conservative parties will be defending a comparable number of council seats, with the Tories holding 985 seats, and Labour having 965. However, Labour has more areas to defend when it comes to council control, with 45 areas compared to the Conservatives' 18.

The mayoral elections will for the first time use a first-past-the-post system which will limit users to voting for one candidate.

The mayoral elections taking place today. (PA)
The mayoral elections taking place today. (PA)

In addition, there will be 37 police and crime commissioners chosen.

The main responsibility of police and crime commissioners is to supervise policing activities within their police force area and ensure that the chief constable is accountable for their actions. Their primary goal is to reduce crime rates while providing an efficient police service.

Blackpool South will not have a council election this year but will instead elect a new MP. The by-election has been prompted by the resignation of Conservative Scott Benton.

You can search here to see which elections are being held in your area and where your nearest polling station is.

Watch: Local elections 2024: When and where and who can vote?

If you haven't registered to vote yet, unfortunately, the deadline has already passed, which was on 19 April. Also, the cut-off date to register for a postal vote was on 17 April.

You can contact your local electoral registration office to see if you are registered to vote here.

However, if you have already received your postal ballot, make sure it is received by your polling station before 10pm on 2 May to ensure it is counted. If you leave it too late to send your postal vote through mail, don't worry. You can still hand it in at your polling station.

You should have been sent a polling card telling you when to vote and at which polling station.

You can only vote at the polling station location on your card. You do not have to take your poll card with you but it's important to remember that if you're planning on voting in person, you'll need to bring a valid photo ID.

The new photo ID rules were implemented as part of the Elections Act 2022 to combat in-person voter fraud.

If you don't have a passport, driving licence photocard, blue badge, or an older person’s bus pass, you'll need to apply for a special voter authority certificate by 5pm on Wednesday.

Without the correct ID or a voter authority certificate, you won't be able to cast your vote.

Here is the latest list of the estimated declaration times:

Councils:

– 12.30am (May 3) Broxbourne

– 1.30am Hartlepool, Rochford, Sunderland

– 2am Bolton, Gosport, Ipswich, Newcastle-upon-Tyne, North East Lincolnshire, South Tyneside, Wigan

– 2.30am Chorley, Eastleigh, Fareham, Hart, Oldham, Portsmouth, Rushmoor, Southend-on-Sea

– 2.45am Exeter

– 3am Harlow, Kingston-upon-Hull, Lincoln, Sefton, Tameside, Thurrock

– 3.15am Reading

– 3.30am Colchester, Gateshead, Redditch, Stockport

– 4am Peterborough, Plymouth

– 4.30am Southampton

– 5.30am Winchester

Police & crime commissioners:

– 1.30am Cumbria

– 2.30am Avon & Somerset

– 3am Lincolnshire

Councils:

– 11am Norwich

– 12pm Blackburn with Darwen, Walsall

– 12.30pm Castle Point, Havant

– 1pm Cannock Chase, Manchester, Watford, Welwyn Hatfield

– 1.30pm Burnley, Preston, Sheffield, West Oxfordshire

– 2pm Basildon, Brentwood, Hyndburn, Knowsley, Nuneaton & Bedworth, Rossendale

– 2.30pm Crawley, Rochdale, Solihull

– 3pm Barnsley, Hastings, Kirklees, Maidstone, Rotherham, Three Rivers

– 3.30pm Halton, Milton Keynes, Sandwell, Trafford

– 4pm Adur, Bury, Calderdale, Cheltenham, Epping Forest, Pendle, St Albans, Swindon, Tunbridge Wells, Woking, Wokingham

– 4.30pm Dudley, Leeds, Wakefield

– 5pm Basingstoke & Deane, Bradford, Cambridge, Coventry, Oxford, Runnymede, Tandridge, Worthing

– 5.30pm Rugby, Wolverhampton, Worcester

– 5.45pm Cherwell

– 6pm Mole Valley, North Hertfordshire, Reigate & Banstead, Stevenage, Tamworth

– 6.30pm Bristol, Elmbridge

– 7pm Dorset

– 8pm West Lancashire

– 10pm Gloucester

Mayors:

– 12pm North East

– 12.30pm Tees Valley

– 2.30pm East Midlands

– 3pm York & North Yorkshire

Police & crime commissioners:

– 1pm Gwent, North Wales

– 1.30pm Humberside

– 2pm Cambridgeshire & Peterborough, Hampshire, Suffolk

– 3pm Bedfordshire, Devon & Cornwall, Dyfed-Powys, Norfolk, Surrey

– 3.30pm Leicestershire

– 4pm Essex, Lancashire, Northamptonshire, South Wales, Staffordshire

– 4.30pm Northumbria

– 5pm Cleveland, Durham, Gloucestershire, Nottinghamshire

– 6pm Derbyshire, West Mercia

Councils:

– 4pm North Tyneside, Stroud, Warrington

Mayors:

– 12pm Liverpool City Region

– 1.30pm London*

– 2pm South Yorkshire

– 3pm West Midlands

– 3.15pm West Yorkshire

– 4pm Greater Manchester

– 5pm Salford

*The local constituency results of the London mayoral election will be declared first, at each of the 14 counts across the capital. A formal announcement of the overall result will be made at City Hall later in the day. 1.30pm is an estimate of when the overall result is likely to have become clear from the constituency results, and is not an estimate of the time of the formal announcement at City Hall.

Police & crime commissioners:

– 12pm Hertfordshire

– 2pm Thames Valley

– 2.30pm Warwickshire, West Midlands

– 3pm Cheshire, Dorset

– 3.30pm Merseyside

– 4pm Wiltshire

Councils:

– 3pm Salford

Police & crime commissioners:

– 3.30pm Sussex

– 4pm Kent