When local election results will be announced in the South West - and what we might see
Now the polls have closed we have a long time to wait to see how the West Country has voted in the largest set of local elections for decades.
Results will start trickling through from Friday lunchtime with the last results expected on Monday afternoon.
There are plenty of seats in play across the region and politicians are nervously hoping their party has made gains this time round.
The West of England Metro Mayor is one of the more hotly contested roles during this election cycle.
Conservative Mayor Tim Bowles is stepping down and Labour and the Lib Dem’s who gave the Tories a run for their money in 2017 are hoping to have increased their support. The Conservatives are hoping they’ve held onto the role, though it is notable that Boris Johnson hasn’t visited the area during campaigning and didn’t mention it on his last day of campaigning when he mentioned the other Conservative Mayoral areas.
We should get the result for the West of England Metro Mayor on Saturday.
Cornwall Council is always an interesting election to watch and we should get the results by Friday afternoon.
Its unlikely any party will gain a majority here. Going into the election the Conservatives were the largest party, but a Independent and Lib Dem coalition ran the council. Both the Lib Dem’s and the Conservatives are hoping to pick up seats to try and take the lead in any future administration.
In the county council elections in the region, Devon, Gloucestershire and Wiltshire are all likely to stay Conservative-controlled, however the other parties and independent candidates are hoping to make inroads in these councils.
We should get the results from Gloucestershire and Devon during the day on Friday while Wiltshire is being counted on Saturday.
Also coming on Friday are two of our most marginal councils: Swindon and Plymouth. The Conservatives have been in control of Swindon, but labour only need a few gains so the party has been campaigning hard in the area. Plymouth is the total opposite with Labour in control, but only just.
In the District Councils, Stroud and Gloucester are always close whilst Exeter City Council is likely to stay Labour.
Labour is confident on keeping hold of the Bristol Mayor post (result comes on Saturday) and hopes are high for the city’s council too (results for that on Sunday) however it’ll be ingesting how the other parties do here. They’re hopeful of stopping a Labour majority on the council and the Greens especially have been pushing hard and expect to increase votes.
It does feel like a lot of the national attention is elsewhere with a Parliamentary by-election in the North East and a focus on the so called ‘Red Wall’ in the North and Midlands as well as Parliamentary elections in Scotland and Wales, however politicians are anxiously waiting to see how the political sands are shifting in the South West and there certainly is the potential for some surprises in a number of counts taking place in the next few days.