Voters in city to go to polls

Voters across the city will go to the polls on Thursday to choose city and county councillors as well as a police and crime commissioner.

The majority of voters in Worcester will have their say in three separate elections with contests being held in a third of wards to elect representatives to Worcester City Council with all of the places on Worcestershire County Council up for grabs as well as the vote for West Mercia’s Police and Crime Commissioner taking place.

Twelve of the city’s 15 wards will be going to the polls on Thursday (May 6) including voters in Arboretum; Battenhall; Bedwardine; Cathedral; Claines; Gorse Hill; Nunnery; Rainbow Hill; St Clement; St John; St Stephen; and Warndon.

The current political makeup of the city council sees the Conservatives slightly on top with 16 councillors compared to Labour’s 15, the Green’s three and the single Liberal Democrat.

All of the 57 places on Worcestershire County Council will be contested with voters in the city’s Bedwardine, Claines, Gorse Hill and Warndon, Nunnery, Rainbow Hill, St John’s, St Peter’s, St Stephen, Riverside and Warndon divisions all going to the polls to elect who they want to represent them.

The county council is currently made up of 40 Conservatives, 10 Labour councillors, two Lib Dems, two Green and two independent candidates.

The four-way battle for West Mercia Police and Crime Commissioner, which will be decided by not only voters in Worcestershire but also voters in Herefordshire, Shropshire and Telford and Wrekin, includes John Campion for the Conservatives, who is seeking re-election having won in 2016, who will be up against Labour’s Kuldip Sahota, Peter Jewell for Reform UK and Margaret Rowley for the Liberal Democrats.

Elections for places on Worcester City Council and the West Mercia Police and Crime Commissioner election was supposed to take place last year but was pushed back 12 months because of the coronavirus pandemic.

The county council election was already scheduled for 2021 having last took place in 2017.

Elected councillors and the region’s police and crime commissioner will serve four year terms.

A total of 77,060 people in Worcester will be eligible to vote and will be able to do so at 67 polling stations across the city which will be open from 7am until 10pm.

The city’s votes for Worcestershire County Council will be counted on Friday evening (May 7) with votes cast in the city council elections counted on Saturday morning (May 8).

Votes in the police and crime commissioner election will be counted in Shrewsbury on Monday (May 10).