Cross-posted from The Wardman Wire:

The local elections scheduled for May have been postponed until June, so that polling day for them coincides with this year’s European elections.

European Parliament

Due to the expansion of the EU, the number of British MEPs is being cut from 78 to 72:

East Midlands 5
Eastern 7
London 8
North East 3
North West 8
South East 10
South West (including Gibraltar) 6
West Midlands 6
Yorkshire & the Humber 6
Wales 4
Scotland 6
Northern Ireland 3 (elected by STV rather than the party list system used in the other regions)

The BBC has quite a good Q+A on the European Parliament and its elections here.

Directly elected Mayors

Three of these are up for election again: Doncaster, Hartlepool and North Tyneside.

Local councils

Thirty-four local councils have some or all of their seats come up for election this year:

Bedford Borough (Unitary Council) – all seats up for election
Central Bedfordshire (Unitary Council) – all seats up for election
Bristol (Unitary Council) – one third of seats up for election
Buckinghamshire (County Council) – all seats up for election
Cambridgeshire (County Council) – all seats up for election
Cornwall (Unitary Council) – all seats up for election
Cumbria (County Council) – all seats up for election
Derbyshire (County Council) – all seats up for election
Devon (County Council) – all seats up for election
Dorset (County Council) – all seats up for election
East Sussex (County Council) – all seats up for election
Essex (County Council) – all seats up for election
Gloucestershire (County Council) – all seats up for election
Hampshire (County Council) – all seats up for election
Hertfordshire (County Council) – all seats up for election
Isle of Wight (Unitary Council) – all seats up for election
Kent (County Council) – all seats up for election
Lancashire (County Council) – all seats up for election
Leicestershire (County Council) – all seats up for election
Lincolnshire (County Council) – all seats up for election
Norfolk (County Council) – all seats up for election
North Yorkshire (County Council) – all seats up for election
Northamptonshire (County Council) – all seats up for election
Nottinghamshire (County Council) – all seats up for election
Oxfordshire (County Council) – all seats up for election
Shropshire (Unitary Council) – all seats up for election
Somerset (County Council) – all seats up for election
Staffordshire (County Council) – all seats up for election
Suffolk (County Council) – all seats up for election
Surrey (County Council) – all seats up for election
Warwickshire (County Council) – all seats up for election
West Sussex (County Council) – all seats up for election
Wiltshire (Unitary Council) – all seats up for election
Worcestershire (County Council) – all seats up for election

Council by-elections

There will also be a scatting of council by-elections. A full list is not yet available.