n LOCAL ELECTIONS Election's over in uncontested parishes

WHILE candidates in South Gloucestershire Council's elections prepare for polling day, some of the area's town and parish councillors have been elected already.

No elections will take place in 69 wards across the district - in some cases covering entire parishes - because not enough candidates came forward to make a vote necessary.

In the Thornbury area they include Alveston and Olveston parish councils, Charfield Parish Council and the South East ward of Thornbury Town Council.

And two parish councils in the area - Rockhampton and Tytherington & Itchington - have had no candidates at all nominated for their five and seven seats respectively.

Nominations will be reopened for these councils within 35 days of polling day on May 4, as well as in Almondsbury Parish Council's Compton ward, where there were also no candidates.

Elections will only take place in 22 parish or town council wards - about one in four of the total across the district.

But those elections include three in Thornbury Town Council's North East, North West and South wards.

In the North East ward, seven candidates are standing for the four available places.

They are independents Helen Ball, Geoffrey Kitchen and Helen Moszoro, Green Party candidate Danny Bonnett, Conservative Franklin Owusu-Antwi - a South Gloucestershire Council cabinet member - and Liberal

Democrats Jayne Stansfield, who is also running to retain her South Gloucestershire Council seat, and Mark Oaten, a former MP.

In Thornbury's North West ward, independents Gil Gilroy, James Murray and John Reynolds, who is a committee member for the Thornbury Town and District Residents Association, and Liberal Democrats Phil O'Rourke and Chris Woodhouse, are standing for the four seats, with one candidate set to miss out.

Thornbury's South ward has six candidates contesting its four seats: Liberal Democrats Chris Bloor, Helen Harrison, Cheryl Jenkinson and Simon Johnson, Rosemary Millar, who is not running with a label, and Conservative Olivia Owusu-Antwi.

Almondsbury Parish Council will have an election in its Almondsbury ward: the five candidates are Liberal Democrat Drew Clayton, independents Antonio Piccioni and Tony Randall, and Marion Stooke and Diane Wilson, who are both running without party labels.

All the other parish and town council wards in Thornbury and surrounding villages will not have contested elections.

In Thornbury's South East ward, Liberal Democrats Chris Davies, Kath Greenman and Maggie Tyrrell have been elected unopposed, along with "Local Independent" Fiona Deas.

The other parish councillors in the Thornbury area who have been elected unopposed, with party labels, where declared, are:

Alveston - Paul Caddick, Anne Curtis, John Graham, Marion

Reeve, Carmen Vazquez and Valerie Williams.

Aust - Ian Jenkins, Stephen Meredith, David Spratt and Jeremy Warren (Independent).

Charfield - Stuart Ashe, Judith Law, Naomi Newns, Tony Parker, Peter Peaster, Mark Rosher, Alexis Threlfall (Independent) and Pete Watts (Green).

Cromhall - Mark Daniel, Daren Jeffery, Michael Line, Lorraine

McMullen and Andrew New. Falfield - Kenneth Fryer, Andrew Gregory, Jane Hathway, Emma Jarvis and Ian Salt.

Oldbury-on-Severn - Sheila Bedford, Laura Day, Chris Jennings and Matthew Riddle.

Olveston - Di Buckley, Martin Gibson, Miles Grocott, John Hughes, Pat Savage, Tony Turnbull and Tony Williams.

Remember: you need photo ID to vote

POLLING takes place from 7am to 10pm on Thursday, May 4, with counting getting underway immediately afterwards.

For the first time, all voters will need to bring formal photo identification, such as a driving licence or passport with them to the polling station or face being turned away, under a law which has just come into force.

Free Voter Authority Certificates, which allow people without other accepted forms of photo ID to vote, have been made available, but the deadline to apply for one has already passed.

Other acceptable forms of photo ID include: a biometric immigration document, Proof of Age Standards Scheme ID card, Ministry of Defence ID card, blue badge, national identity card issued by an EEA state, older person’s or disabled person’s bus pass, Oyster 60+ Card or Freedom Pass.

The photo ID law has been controversial, with opposition councillors warning earlier this year that more than 8,000 people in South Gloucestershire do not have the required identification and could be "disenfranchised" as a result.

The law has been brought in to prevent electoral fraud, but opponents say there have only been two convictions for the crime in the past five years, while hundreds were turned away from polling stations in trial areas in 2019.

Research by the Electoral Commission shows voters less likely to have an accepted form of ID are over-85s, people with disabilities, homeless and transgender people.