The 'forgotten elections'

Local elections decide key issues like school budgets

Many people in England and Northern Ireland will get a second vote on Thursday - with local elections in all 34 English counties and 11 unitary or all-purpose authorities.

In Northern Ireland all council seats are being decided.

BBC News political correspondent John Andrew reports on what are likely to be the "forgotten elections"

While parties brace themselves for what could be the lowest turn-out in a general election since the end of the First World War, we can at least guarantee that the local elections will record a much bigger vote than usual.

That is because, for the second time in a row, the general and local elections are being held on the same day in the same polling stations.

Higher turnout

That will guarantee a much bigger vote in elections which normally see 30-40% turnouts.

County local elections

Bedfordshire

Buckinghamshire

Cambridgeshire

Cheshire

Cornwall

Cumbria

Derbyshire

Devon

Dorset

Durham

East Sussex

Essex

Gloucestershire

Hampshire

Hertfordshire

Kent

Lancashire

Leicestershire

Lincolnshire

Norfolk

North Yorkshire

Northamptonshire

Northumberland

Nottinghamshire

Oxforshire

Shropshire

Somerset

Staffordshire

Suffolk

Surrey

Warwickshire

West Sussex

Wiltshire

Worcestershire

Indeed, in some individual wards turnout has been known to dip below ten per cent.

You might have thought the Labour tidal wave that swept Tony Blair to power in 1997 would have done the same in town hall elections.

But you would be wrong.

The Conservatives were then going into elections when their support in local government was at an all-time low.

They controlled only one of the shire counties - Buckinghamshire.

Sustantial wins

But while the party was holding a wake over its crushing general election defeat, its triumphant councillors were celebrating substantial wins.

In those and subsequent elections, they have gained more than 2,300 new councillors and are bullish about taking more shire counties when most of the results are counted on Friday morning.

Though these have been called the "forgotten elections" they touch right at the heart of the national debate over public services.

The county councils alone spend more than £17bn in major areas like education and social services.

Foot-and-mouth delayed the May local elections

Many also serve rural areas that have been hard hit by foot-and- mouth disease.

Labour's best hopes are in the urban unitary authorities, such as Bristol and Warrington.

But Local Government Minister Beverley Hughes has been cautious about their prospects overall.

"When we fought these elections four years ago we were already on a historic high in terms of numbers of seats.

"So clearly we're defending a very, very strong position, but we're fighting to keep all of those seats," she said.

County control

The Conservatives' environment spokesman Archie Norman told the BBC that he was confident the party would control most of the counties by Friday.

Unitary authority local elections

Blackburn with Darwen

Bristol City

Halton Borough Council

Isle of Wight

Peterborough City

Reading Borough Council

Slough Borough Council

Southend-on-Sea Borough Council

Thurrock Council

Warrington Borough Council

Wokingham Borough Council

"We are particularly confident in places like the West Country, where the Liberal Democrats have become the establishment and where we've seen huge increases in council tax, and the failure to deliver better services, and people are pretty fed up," he said.

The Liberal Democrats, whose main strength is in local government, say they are the one party really committed to more power at local level.

"The fear that the local council and the county council can't make much of a difference has got through to people," said deputy leader Alan Beith.

"We need to change that and have a re-invigorated local government."