Local Elections to be Held 5th May 2011

The local elections will be held on Thursday, 5 May.  All 26 East Riding of Yorkshire Council wards will be contested, returning a total of 67 councillors, together with more than 1500 seats on town and parish councils in the area.

The notice of election has been published and the council will publish a statement of persons nominated no later than noon on Wednesday, 6 April.  The closing date for nominations is noon on Monday, 4 April, with the final deadline for withdrawals noon on Thursday, 7 April.

The other key date is on Thursday, 14 April, which is the last day for requesting a new postal or proxy vote, which must be done by 5pm.  Thursday 14 April is also the deadline for people to apply to be included on the register of electors.  All registered electors will receive poll cards including those in receipt of a postal vote.

As well as the local election, the national referendum on the AV voting system takes place on Thursday, 5 May.  All polling booths will be open from 7am to 10 pm.

The votes for both elections will be ‘verified’ (ie establishing the number of votes cast checked against ballot papers issued) on the Thursday night but the count and declaration of results will not take place until Friday, 6 May.  East Riding of Yorkshire Council election votes will be counted from 9am on the Friday at the four count centres (Beverley, Driffield, Goole and Haltemprice leisure centres).  The town and parish council votes will also be counted at these venues, but the Beverley area parish councils will  be counted at Haltemprice Leisure Centre so that the AV referendum can be counted from 4pm at Beverley Leisure Centre.  The referendum results will then be notified to Wakefield town hall for the regional declaration on Friday night.

Information about the local elections can also be found on the council’s website www.eastriding.gov.uk including the local election timetable, information for both candidates and elections, and the results of the last ERYC and parish elections in 2007.  The website will be updated with new information as the key dates occur between now and polling day on 5 May.  Click on ‘council and democracy’ and ‘elections.’

Turn-outs across the country in local elections are usually much lower than in general elections and the council urges people to use not lose their vote.  The turn-out in the 2007 local election in the East Riding was 36.4%.   Everyone wants a good turn-out on 5 May – not least the candidates themselves!