Your guide to the local elections in the Anglia region

Nearly 1,500 local councillors are being elected in the Anglia region on 2 May 2019 in the biggest test of political opinion since 2017. Credit: PA

On Thursday 2 May 2019, voters in the East of England will go to the polls in the largest set of elections in the Anglia region since the General Election in 2017.

Watch our guide to the local elections in the Anglia region by Election Editor David Hughes

Nearly 1,500 councillors are being elected on 44 local councils; there are more than 4,000 candidates.

It comes amidst a tumultuous time in British politics, with Brexit unresolved, party defections aplenty and voters expressing discontent at mainstream party politics.

The picture in our region has changed since the last time we voted in 2015 as local election boundaries have been changed in many areas with some new councils being created in Suffolk.

Elections have been postponed by a year in Northamptonshire following the financial crisis at the county council. The two-tier council structure is being scrapped in favour of two new unitary authorities in the county.

Polling stations are open on Thursday 2 May from 7am until 10pm

Councils in the Anglia region with elections on Thursday 2 May 2019

There is a four-year local election cycle with some councils holding elections for one-third of the council and some councils holding all-out elections for the entire council.

In Bedford, there is a vote for the Anglia region's only directly-elected Borough Mayor, who runs the council along with the councillors.

Most councils in the Anglia region have a Conservative majority. Some councils are hung, where no one party has enough seats to out-vote all the other parties. These are councils with No Overall Control (NOC) and are sometime run by a party without a majority or with a coalition of parties.

  • Babergh - currently Conservative

  • Basildon - currently Conservative

  • Bedford - NOC currently with a Liberal Democrat mayor

  • Braintree - currently Conservative

  • Breckland - currently Conservative

  • Brentwood - currently Conservative

  • Broadland - currently Conservative

  • Cambridge - currently Labour

  • Castle Point - currently Conservative

  • Central Bedfordshire - currently Conservative

  • Chelmsford - currently Conservative

  • Colchester - No overall control

  • Dacorum - currently Conservative

  • East Cambridgeshire - currently Conservative

  • East Hertfordshire - currently Conservative

  • East Suffolk - new council formed from merged Suffolk Coastal and Waveney

  • Epping Forest - currently Conservative

  • Fenland - currently Conservative

  • Great Yarmouth - currently Conservative

  • Harborough - currently Conservative

  • Harlow - currently Labour

  • Ipswich - currently Labour

  • King's Lynn & West Norfolk - currently Conservative

  • Luton - currently Labour

There are nearly 1,500 councils seats on 44 councils up for election in the Anglia region on Thursday 2 May 2019. Credit: ITV News Anglia

  • Maldon - currently Conservative

  • Mid Suffolk - currently Conservative

  • Milton Keynes - No overall control

  • North Hertfordshire - currently Conservative

  • North Norfolk - No overall control

  • Norwich - currently Labour

  • Peterborough - currently Conservative

  • Rochford - currently Conservative

  • Rutland - currently Conservative

  • Saint Albans - currently Conservative

  • South Holland - currently Conservative

  • South Kesteven - currently Conservative

  • South Norfolk - currently Conservative

  • Southend-on-Sea - currently Conservative

  • Stevenage - currently Labour

  • Tendring - currently Conservative

  • Thurrock - No overall control

  • Uttlesford - currently Conservative

  • Welwyn Hatfield - currently Conservative

  • West Suffolk - new council formed from merged Forest Heath & St Edmundsbury