Out for the Count

On Thursday May 4th 2017, local elections were held up and down the country. Many thanks to everyone that joined the Out for the Count campaign to help us tell the story of these local elections. You helped us cover them from start to finish this year with the support of the County Councils Network (CCN).  

Head over to our live blog to see the full coverage and our results map. Check out our final briefing on the results and our press statement here.

With theMJ we have now published our annual Map of Political Control which all subscribers to theMJ will have received. You can download a PDF of the map –  MJ/LGiU Map of Political Control.

Who had elections on 4 May?

In England there were elections in 27 English county councils, 7 unitary authorities and 1 Metropolitan Borough
Council
. That’s a total of 2,370 seats across England, while 6 city regions will also choose their first directly elected mayors and there are elections for mayors in Doncaster and North Tyneside councils.

One county council, Derbyshire is run by the Labour Party, 15 are run by the Conservative Party, and 11 have no overall political control, while Doncaster Metropolitan Borough Council is a Labour authority.

All 32 Scottish councils are up for election. The SNP currently control Angus and Dundee City, whilst the Labour Party have control over Glasgow City, Renfrewshire, North Lanarkshire and West Dunbartonshire. Na h-Eileanan Siar, Orkney and Shetland are run by Independent groups. The other Scottish authorities are in no overall control.

All 22 Welsh councils are up for election. The Labour Party is in control of ten councils (Blaenau Gwent, Bridgend, Caerphilly, Cardiff, Merthyr Tydfil, Neath Port Talbot, Newport, Rhondda Cynon Taff, Swansea, and Torfaen). Pembrokeshire and Powys are controlled by Independent Groups. Nine councils are in no overall control. Results from the 2016 Local Elections

Councils having Elections by Political Control


Out for the Count campaign

Out for the Count is an awareness raising campaign dedicated to improving local democracy with a call for open and accessible local elections data across the UK.

Over the past six years, the LGiU has provided live local elections coverage and a results service with insights into what’s happening on the ground and what it means for the country as a whole. Telling the story of what’s happening in the locals and raising awareness of these issues is something we are proud to be continuing this year.

Out for the Count 2017 will be run in partnership between the Local Government Information Unit (LGiU) and the County Councils Network (CCN) working alongside the Democracy Club.  With the help of hundreds of Count Correspondents (volunteers from local government and the wider community) we will crowdsource results live from counts taking place across the country as they come.

CCN is the national representative body for 37 county council and county unitary authorities, 32 of which are holding all-out elections this May. As part of their Your County Matters Campaign, they are supporting Out for the Count to promote the importance of county authorities, the services they provide and local democracy in Shire Counties, which cover 86% of England’s landmass and 47% of its population.

In 2016, with funding and support from the Open Data Institute and Democracy Club, Out for the Count delivered the UK’s first election results tracker for the local government elections on 5 May last year.

To sign up for our election night updates, email jen.pufky@lgiu.org.

Join Out for the Count 2017 by being a count correspondent, email roshni.mistry@lgiu.org.

To find out more about the Your County Matters campaign, email james.maker2@local.gov.uk.


Count Correspondents

Every year we ask for Count Correspondents who are attending local election counts to report back to us so that we can gather the results as fast as possible.

This year in partnership with the County Councils Network (CCN) working alongside the Democracy Club Out for the Count aims to provide greater transparency in local elections and more-informed choices for voters.

During the counts which take place from 10.00pm on Thursday – with some council counting overnight and others on Friday, Saturday and even Sunday – together, with our count correspondents, we feed the results into our live database as soon as possible. The LGiU team will have a manned live blog over the period, reporting the results via the blog and twitter and providing extra comment and insight.

Join Out for the Count 2017 by being a count correspondent, email roshni.mistry@lgiu.org.

Candidates Data

Councils across England and Wales have now published the official lists of candidates for the elections and Democracy Club have imported them into their website. They now need your help to take the useful data out of the PDFs and into their free, open database.

Polling Station Finder

Democracy Club are also offering an embeddable polling station finder (free) for your council’s website. This should help increase voter turnout and reduce calls on polling day, saving you money. For it to work for your area, you must have provided polling location data to Democracy Club.


Full list of Local Elections on 4 May

England

Organisation Type Political Control
1.Buckinghamshire County Council Conservative
2.Cambridgeshire County Council No overall control
3.Cumbria County Council No overall control
4.Derbyshire County Council Labour
5. Devon County Council Conservative
6.Dorset County Council Conservative
7.East Sussex County Council No overall control
8.Essex County Council Conservative
9.Gloucestershire County Council No overall control
10.Hampshire County Council Conservative
11.Hertfordshire County Council Conservative
12.Kent County Council Conservative
13.Lancashire County Council No overall control
14.Leicestershire County Council Conservative
15.Lincolnshire County Council No overall control
16.Norfolk County Council No overall control
17.North Yorkshire County Council Conservative
18.Northamptonshire County Council Conservative
19.Nottinghamshire County Council No overall control
20.Oxfordshire County Council No overall control
21.Somerset County Council Conservative
22.Staffordshire County Council Conservative
23.Suffolk County Council No overall control
24.Surrey County Council Conservative
25.Warwickshire County Council No overall control
26.West Sussex County Council Conservative
27.Worcestershire County Council Conservative
28.Cornwall Unitary Authority No overall control
29.County Durham Unitary Authority Labour
30.Isle of Wight Unitary Authority No overall control
31.Northumberland Unitary Authority No overall control
32.Shropshire Unitary Authority Conservative
33.Wiltshire Unitary Authority Conservative
34.Isles of Scilly Suis Generis Unitary n/a
35.Doncaster Metropolitan Borough Council Labour

 

Mayoral elections
1. Cambridgeshire and Peterborough Combined Authority Mayor
2. Greater Manchester Combined Authority Mayor
3. Liverpool City Region Combined Authority Mayor
4. Tees Valley Combined Authority Mayor
5. West of England Combined Authority Mayor
6. West Midlands Combined Authority Mayor
7. Doncaster Mayoral
8. North Tyneside Mayoral

 

Scotland

1. Aberdeen No overall control
2. Aberdeenshire No overall control
3. Angus SNP
4. Argyll & Bute No overall control
5. Clackmannanshire No overall control
6. Dumfries & Galloway No overall control
7. Dundee SNP
8. East Ayrshire No overall control
9. East Dunbartonshire No overall control
10. East Lothian No overall control
11. East Renfrewshire No overall control
12. Edinburgh No overall control
13. Eilean Siar Independent
14. Falkirk No overall control
15. Fife No overall control
16. Glasgow   Labour
17. Highland No overall control
18. Inverclyde No overall control
19. Midlothian No overall control
20. Moray No overall control
21. North Ayrshire No overall control
22. North Lanarkshire No overall control
23. Orkney Independent
24. Perth & Kinross No overall control
25. Renfrewshire Labour
26. Scottish Borders No overall control
27. Shetland Independent
28. South Ayrshire No overall control
29. South Lanarkshire Labour
30. Stirling No overall control
31. West Dunbartonshire Labour
32. West Lothian No overall control

 

Wales

Wales Political Control
1. Blaenau Gwent Labour
2. Bridgend Labour
3. Caerphilly Labour
4. Cardiff Labour
5. Carmarthenshire No overall control
6. Ceredigion No overall control
7. Conwy No overall control
8. Denbighshire No overall control
9. Flintshire No overall control
10. Gwynedd Plaid Cymru
11. Isle of Anglesey No overall control
12. Merthyr Tydfil Labour
13. Monmouthshire No overall control
14. Neath Port Talbot Labour
15. Newport Labour
16. Pembrokeshire Independent
17. Powys Independent
18. Rhondda Cynon Taff Labour
19. Swansea Labour
20. Torfaen Labour
21. Vale of Glamorgan No overall control
22. Wrexham No overall control