Borough heads to the polls in Halton local elections

Polling booths opened at 7am this morning and are due to close at 10pm this evening. A list of local polling stations can be found here. 

The borough is one of 146 councils in England holding elections today, with 22 in Wales and 32 in Scotland. The Northern Ireland Assembly will also be contested and there will also be votes for elected mayors in five London boroughs, Watford and the South Yorkshire region.

A total of 18 wards – a third of the borough’s 54 councils seats – are being contested across both Widnes and Runcorn today, with four parties - Labour, Conservative, Liberal Democrat and Greens - vying for seats along with seven independent candidates.

The current make-up of Halton Council is 48 Labour, three Liberal Democrat, two Conservative and one Green.

After polls close at 10pm, ballot boxes will be brought to the DCBL stadium in Widnes where they will be counted. The first results are expected shortly after midnight. The World will be running a live blog this evening and will update it with views from the count and the results as they come in. 

This evening will be the first election in 18 years where former council chief executive Davie Parr has not served as returning officer, after he stepped down from his council role at the end of March.

Last year saw 'all out' elections, which meant every ward was contested after Halton's political map was redrawn by the Boundary Commission, with several wards reconfigured or merged, and others ceasing to exist completely.

The count was also carried out under Covid-secure conditions, which meant the results were not announced until the next day. Despite the pandemic, voter turnout of 24.52 per cent, was broadly comparable to any other year.

This year sees a return to normality, with just a third of seats being up for election, and results being expected in the early hours.

A full list of candidates can be found here.