Local Elections 2023: Voters across Devon to elect new councils in May

In just over five weeks all the local authorities in Devon, except the county council, will be staging elections.

Voters go to the polls on 4 May in both unitary authorities: at Torbay Council, every seat is up for grabs, while at Plymouth City Council, a third are.

North Devon, Torridge, Mid-Devon, West Devon, East Devon, Teignbridge, and South Hams will be holding whole-council elections.

A third of Exeter City Council seats will contested.

There is traditionally an obvious political divide between Devon's two cities and the rest of the county.

Labour are big players on both Plymouth and Exeter councils, and have a huge majority on the latter.

In Plymouth, they are already the largest group and will be hoping to seize control next month.

Plymouth's Conservatives are currently running a minority administration and have undergone a long period of very public infighting.

For the second year running they are going into an election campaign having recently changed their leader.

The rural districts tend to be Conservative / Liberal Democrat battlegrounds - watch out for North Devon and South Hams, in particular.

Some of them also boast formidable contingents of independent councillors, and they form the largest group on East Devon and Torridge councils after the last election to these seats in 2019.

Torbay, while an urban area, is also very much a Tory / Lib Dem contest. Could the Lib Dem minority administration move to full control this time?

The Green Party will go into this set of elections buoyed up by notable successes in Plymouth and Exeter last year.

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