Croydon goes to the polls next week – Thursday 3 May – with electors choosing who their councillors will be for the next four years.
The borough has the largest electorate in London, with 270,926 voters currently registered to choose from the 267 candidates contesting the 28 council wards.
Labour and the Conservatives have candidates standing for all 70 seats, the Greens for 64, and the Liberal Democrats for 46. Additionally, UKIP will be fielding eight candidates, the BNP three, Unity in Action two, Duma Polska one, and there will be three independent candidates. Details of all the candidates can be found at https://tinyurl.com/yczj44es
All of the 150 polling stations to be used have been booked in good time, and they include 54 church halls and 17 community halls, as well as six libraries, four tennis clubs, two cafés and two private garages; 37 schools and nurseries will be used as polling stations where no other suitable local facility exists. School closures will be kept to a minimum, with head teachers deciding whether lessons can continue alongside on-site polling.
Some 450 staff have been engaged to run the polling stations, which will be open from 7am to 10pm, and almost 300 staff will be undertaking counting duties at Trinity School, in Shirley.
Earlier this year, the boundary commission announced changes to the borough’s wards. With those changes (see details at https://tinyurl.com/ybd2wmor) being introduced at the same time as the elections, electoral staff are urging people to ensure they carefully read their polling cards – which they should have received – to ensure they know where their local polling station is. Polling station locations can be found at https://tinyurl.com/y75nerh6
Jo Negrini, returning officer and chief executive Croydon Council
“We’ve been preparing for these elections for some time. As ever, it will be a significant operation and I’m grateful not only for the intense work being done by electoral staff but also for the large number of people who will be running the polling stations and undertaking the counts.
“The emphasis of our activity is to get everything right. We want elections where the electoral register accurately reflects the electorate and we’ll be professionally delighted if voters use all the votes to which they are entitled.
“We’ve been planning for the elections very carefully and our intention is to ensure that every vote cast counts toward the accurate declaration of results.”
For comprehensive information on the elections in Croydon visit: www.croydon.gov.uk/elections
