New political map for shire polls

Hundreds of people are standing in local elections on 5 May

There may be worries over turnout for the general election, but it is bound to improve numbers for local polls in the East Midlands on the same day.

Voters in shire areas will be handed a second ballot paper to elect county councillors at the same time.

Turnout may improve, but there are fears local issues can be overlooked when national and local polls coincide.

Local election turnout is often extremely low, but rises markedly when it runs at the same time as a national election. Some 63% of Leicestershire's potential voters turned out for the 2001 county elections.

For the third time running, the general election date - chosen by the prime minister - has been set to coincide with the county elections, which are fixed to run on the first Thursday in May every four years.

2001 county election results Derbyshire - Lab 43, Con 13, LibDem7, Ind Leicestershire - Con 29, Lab 15, LibDem 10 Lincolnshire - Con 48, Lab 21, LibDem 4, Ind 3 Nottinghamshire - Lab 40, Con 20, LibDem 3

General election counting takes precedence and starts at the close of polls on Thursday night.

But those standing for county seats will have to sweat it out, as the outcome of local polls will not emerge until the next day.

Boundaries of county council seats, known as divisions, have been redrawn in some areas to reflect a change in population, with the tradition of one county councillor per division has been changed in some areas.

Eight Nottinghamshire seats will have more than one councillor - with two being elected in seats across Arnold, Bramcote and Stapleford, Carlton, Chilwell and Toton, Mansfield and West Bridgford.

Things get more complicated in Hucknall where three of the 11 candidates will become county councillors for one new huge seat.

Leics candidates (55 seats) 55 Con 49 LibDem 46 Lab 11 BNP 10 Independent 3 Green 2 Others

David Pitt, head of democratic services for Leicestershire County Council, said: "We have not had multi-member constituencies before, they have been only allowed by a recent change in the law.

"People might be used to voting for two or three district councillors but this is a new thing for the county council."

It was not a plan supported by the county council as it thought a mix of one and two-member divisions could confuse people.

Leicestershire has three of the new style two-member seats in the Hinckley and Oadby areas.

The new Hinckley seat will see an interesting fight with outgoing deputy leader Roger Miller (Con) and vice-chairman David Bill (LibDem) both having to come in the top two to survive in the new seat.

Hinckley has six candidates with two each from the Labour, LibDem and Conservative parties in the seat.

There are no local elections in unitary authority areas, such as Leicester, Derby and Nottingham city councils. People turning up at polling stations there will only get ballot to elect a new MP.