Local Elections 2022: Seats to watch in Wales as voters head to the polls

Local Elections are always a good litmus test on the state of national politics in the UK - but this year's polls are a highly anticipated measure of public opinion post-Covid and mid-Partygate.

In Wales, Thursday May 5 will see voters heading to the polls to choose who represents us in all 22 local authorities across the country.

At the last council election in 2017, Welsh Conservatives declared a "good night in the office" while Labour suffered some bruising losses.

Andrew RT Davies' party was just short of overall control in the Vale of Glamorgan. Meanwhile, Plaid Cymru will be bidding for Carmarthenshire to win outright. Plus, Wrexham's result could give a clue as to how Labour is faring in the red wall under Keir Starmer.

So what twists and turns can we expect to see this time around? Here are the results to watch in the Wales 2022 local elections.

Anglesey No one can accuse local politics on the island of being boring, with a string of internal tensions culminating in the Welsh Government placing an outside team of commissioners to run the authority for a time back in 2013.

Since then it's back in the hands of local politicians but no one party has overall control here, with a strong history of independent councillors playing a key role in the final makeup.

Plaid Cymru are currently the largest group and are just short of overall control - but with all the wards returning more than one member it's hard to predict how things will look after polling day.

BridgendLabour will be keen to take back overall control of Bridgend Council after unexpectedly losing the authority back in 2017. It's only a couple of seats short of that mark and it's the kind of place that Labour will need to win if Labour is to have a strong showing in these set of elections.

The Conservatives did win the Bridgend parliamentary constituency, which is geographically located within the authority' boundaries, back in the landslide election of 2019, but the mood feels very different towards Boris Johnson now.

ConwyAll four of the main parties are represented on Conwy Council and it's very unlikely anyone will emerge with overall control come Friday lunchtime. But the result here will tell us a lot about how Conservative voters are thinking and whether the other parties can make inroads.

The Liberal Democrats have been strong here in the past and Plaid Cymru has also controlled this authority too. But here, like in many other areas, it's likely that post-election talks will eventually decide which groups assume control.

Merthyr TydfilWales' smallest local authority in terms of population and another council that Labour will be looking to re-gain after losing control in 2017 to the independents. Labour struggled to hold on to many seats here, and in neighbouring authorities back then, in part because of a wider drop in support across the country for the party.

This again is the kind of council that Keir Starmer will have to win if it's to be a good result for him and his party.

MonmouthshireThe only Welsh authority the Conservatives hold outright and they'll be looking to keep hold of their control of county hall. Their leader here, Richard John, has been a vocal critic of the prime minister's actions around parties at Downing Street and has tried to focus on local issues.

There have also been significant changes to electoral wards here since the last election which may have some impact on the result too.