SOME 75 candidates will be battling it out for seats in Crewe, Nantwich and Sandbach in the Cheshire East Council Elections on Thursday May 5.

They will be fighting for a total of 29 seats in 20 different South Cheshire wards.

This will be the first election using new electoral ward boundaries for wards in Cheshire East following a review by the Boundary Committee. This means there will be 82 Councillors in the Cheshire East Council. The number of wards has changed from 27 to 52; depending on population, some wards will have one councillor and some wards will have two or three councillors A national referendum on the alternative vote system will take place on the same day. There will be separate ballot papers for each council election and the referendum.

Polling stations will be open from 7 am until 10pm. The candidates for the one Audlem seat are Conservative Rachel Bailey and Labour’s Louise Taylor.

Standing for the single Bunbury seat are Labour’s Constance Jones and Conservative Michael Jones.

Candidates for the Crewe Central seat are Labour’s Irene Faseyi, Liberal Democrat Gwyn Griffiths and Conservative Cath Murphy.

Contesting the three Crewe East seats are Conservative Thomas Ankers, Liberal Democrat Paul Boniface, Conservative Katharine Jones, Labour’s Peggy Martin, Labour’s David Newton, Labour’s Chris Thorley and Conservative Stephen Turnbull.

Standing for the Crewe North seat are Labour’s Mo Grant and Conservative John Jones.

Competing for two Crewe South seats are Conservative Danny Bull, Labour’s Dorothy Flude, Labour’s Steven Hogben, Liberal Democrat Elizabeth Howell, Conservative Frank Lepisz and Liberal Democrat Lisa Smith.

Contesting the Crewe St Barnabas seat are Labour’s Roy Cartlidge and Conservative Debbie Le Goff.

The two Crewe West seats will be fought by Conservative Jubeyar Ahmed, Liberal Democrat David Cannon, Liberal Democrat Robert Icke, Conservative Robert Johnson, Labour’s Peter Nurse and Labour’s Michelle Sherratt.

Competing for two Haslington seats will be Labour candidate Phillip Buckley, Conservative John Hammond, Labour’s David Holmes, Conservative David Marren and Liberal Democrat Nicholas Taylor.

Contesting the single Leighton seat in Crewe are Labour’s Terry Beard, Conservative Derek Bebbington and Independent Byron Evans.

Standing for two seats in Nantwich North and West are Independent candidate Penny Butterill, Conservative Brian Dykes, Conservative Steven Edgar, Independent Arthur Moran, Labour’s John Priest and Labour’s Trevor Rowland.

Competing for two seats in Nantwich South and Stapeley are Labour’s Chris Cull, Independent Teresa Eatough, Conservative Peter Groves, Conservative Andrew Martin, Labour’s Rachel Shenton and Independent Alan Williams.

Standing for the Sandbach Elworth seat are Labour’s Richard Hoffman, Liberal Democrat David Jack and Conservative Gill Merry.

Contesting the Sandbach Ettiley Heath and Wheelock seat are Labour candidate Ursula Griffiths, Conservative Gail Morris and Liberal Democrat Andrew Wood.

Standing for the Sandbach Heath and East seat are Liberal Democrat Elsie Alcock, Labour’s Sam Corcoran and Conservative Stella Furlong.

Fighting for the single Sandbach Town seat are Liberal Democrat Phill Goode, Labour’s Keith Haines and Conservative Barry Moran.

Competing for the Shavington seat are Shavington First candidate David Brickhill, Conservative Julian Goodier-Page and Labour’s Ben Minshall.

Contesting the Willaston and Rope seat are Labour’s Maurice Jones and Conservative Brian Silvester.

Standing for the two Wistaston seats are Labour candidate Tom Dunlop, Independent Robert Parker, Conservative Margaret Simon and Conservative Margaret Weatherill.

The Wrenbury seat will be contested by Conservative Stan Davies and Labour’s Adrian Heald.

The single Wybunbury seat will be contested by Conservative Janet Clowes and Labour’s Joseph Lundie.