From matters of social care to bin collections, bus routes and potholes, to providing mental health services, deciding on planning applications and managing schemes to tackle climate change, elections in May will give local residents the chance to choose councillors who will take charge of these chores for the local residents.
A total of 1,817 seats across London’s boroughs are up for grabs – as Labour seeks to dominate Tory-held seats in Wandsworth and Barnet as well as defending stronghold boroughs such as Croydon.
In England, more than 4,000 councillors in 146 councils are up for election in major cities including Leeds, Manchester, Birmingham and all 32 London boroughs.
South Yorkshire will also be voting for a regional mayor and 1,000 parish councils will be electing about 10,000 councillors.
The election for Northern Ireland's government is largely a contest between the parties in two blocs: unionists, who favour continuing the union with Britain, and nationalists, who favour a united Ireland, BBC reported.
All seats in 22 local councils will be contested across Wales, where people can vote from the age of 16. Voting is open to anyone over the age of 16 in Scotland, in all 32 local authorities.
In England, there is a fair bit: 33 metropolitan borough councils, covering 904 seats; 21 unitary authorities, with 627 seats; 60 district councils (1,011 seats); 32 London boroughs (1,817 seats); plus mayors in six London local authorities, and a South Yorkshire combined authority mayor.
In Scotland, there are 1,219 seats up for grabs in 32 councils, while for Wales it is 1,234 seats in 22 councils. Northern Ireland will vote for the 90 members of its devolved assembly.
Arguing what’s at stake for the main parties, BBC wrote, “While this is a different set of elections in different parts of the country from last year, it will still be the first widespread test for Boris Johnson since the war in Ukraine, the spiralling cost of living and the so-called party gate saga. The latter has not yet been resolved; an outcome from the Met Police's investigation is still pending, and if it comes before polling day it could clearly have an impact, one way or another.”
The report also stated that the Labour party needs to show whether it can reverse some of its recent electoral losses, particularly in parts of the country that voted to leave the EU.
Each of London’s 32 boroughs is divided into wards for which voters can make their choice of the councillors for each seat. A councillor will sit for four years.
In 27 boroughs the council leader is determined by the party group with the most overall council seats.
The five other boroughs – Tower Hamlets, Hackney, Lewisham, Newham, and, from May 2022, Croydon – have their local council leader chosen directly by voters in an executive mayoral system.
