Local elections are set to take place on Thursday, May 5 with polling stations being open across the UK, including in Trafford.

Those who vote will be choosing local representatives in England, Wales, Northern Ireland and Scotland.

People will need to head to their local polling station before closing time if they wish to place a vote.

When do polling stations close in Trafford?

Polling stations across Trafford are set to open at 7am and close at 10pm on Thursday.

It’s important to get to the polling station in plenty of time before it closes to make sure you are able to vote.

When will local election 2022 results be announced?

With polling stations closing at 10pm, votes are set to be counted once ballot boxes are taken from all polling stations and sent to local or regional counting centres where they’ll be opened and counted by staff.

When an area’s votes are all counted, the returning officer who is in charge will announce the results on stage.

It’s likely the first batch of results will be revealed at midnight with some locations such as Newcastle-upon-Tyne, Essex, Greater Manchester and Bolton traditionally being announced around this time.

The latest is likely to be around 5pm on Saturday from Tower Hamlets.

What are people voting for?

Here’s what people are voting for, in a nutshell:

  • Every local authority in Scotland, Wales and London.
  • South Yorkshire’s regional mayor and the borough councils of Barnsley and Sheffield.
  • 60 district councils, 31 Metropolitan boroughs and 19 unitary authorities across the rest of England.
  • County councils in North Yorkshire and Somerset.
  • Local mayors in Croydon, Hackney, Lewisham, Newham, Tower Hamlets and Watford.
  • All 90 seats in the Northern Ireland assembly
  • There is also a referendum in Bristol on whether to keep the city’s elected mayor.

Polling results published in the Daily Telegraph newspaper suggested the Conservatives could be set for their worst performance in the local elections since the 1990s.

The survey, conducted by Electoral Calculus with Find Out Now, suggested Labour could be on course to gain more than 800 seats, while the Tories are likely to lose 548 seats on councils across the country.