The 'forgotten elections'

Local elections decide key issues like school budgets

Thursday sees not only the general election in the UK, but also the local council polls - postponed due to the foot-and-mouth crisis.

These are taking place in England and Northern Ireland. For the second time in a row, national and local votes are being held on the same day in the same polling stations in England.

It is notable that despite Labour's sweep to national power in May 1997, the Tories - who then controlled only one of the shire counties, Buckinghamshire - celebrated substantial local wins.

So all the parties will be watching very closely through bleary eyes when most of the council results are counted on Friday morning.

Foot-and-mouth delayed the May local elections

Although these have been called the "forgotten elections", they go right to 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.

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

But as well as the elections, a referendum is also being held in Berwick-upon-Tweed, so local residents can decide if they want a directly-elected mayor.

If the referendum decides in favour of a mayor, there will be another vote next October to elect one.

Election details

The polls in England - originally scheduled for 3 May - will see local elections in all 34 English counties and 11 unitary or all-purpose authorities.

These seats were last contested on 1 May 1997.

In two cases - the Isle of Wight and Southend - the whole council is being elected; in the other nine, only one third of the seats are being fought over.

Of the 34 county councils, the Tories currently control 11, Labour nine, the Liberal Democrats three and independent councillors one. In the other 10, no single party or group has a majority.

Of the 11 unitary authorities, seven are run by Labour, one by the Conservatives and the rest have no majority parties.

Northern Ireland

In Northern Ireland, the compositon of all 26 councils is being decided, and it is the first time polling has taken place on the same day as a general election.

Some 582 councillors will be elected by the single transferable vote system of proportional representation, under which voters rank candidates in order of preference.

People will vote under two different systems, with the ballots being colour-coded.

A white ballot paper will be used to choose between general election candidate under the first-past-the-post system.

And there will be a lilac ballot paper to record voters' preferences in the local elections.

Delayed count

Each council is divided into between three and five district electoral areas - except Belfast, which has nine. Each area returns between five and seven councillors.

Counting will not begin in Northern Ireland until Monday 11 June because of the general election. The final results will not be known until the following day.

The last time these councils were contested was on 21 May, 1997.