Here's a list of Hertfordshire County Council election candidates for Dacorum

More than 300 political hopefuls across Hertfordshire are battling it out for a place on the county council, as the countdown to polling day continues.

Nominations have now closed. And records show there are 327 candidates who have registered to stand as county councillors.

The Conservatives and the Labour Party have candidates standing in EVERY one of the council’s 78 divisions.

Liberal Democrats are standing in every seat except one, in North Ware.

And the Green Party – who don’t currently have a single seat on the council – have 62 candidates listed across Hertfordshire

Each are hoping for a place on the county council, which is responsible for a wide range of services including education, social services, waste disposal, public health – and even the fire service.

Currently the Conservatives on the county council have a majority of 20 – holding 49 seats, compared to the Lib Dems 18, Labour’s nine and the two independents.

But opposition parties will be keen to make gains in a number of seats where the margins are tight.

There are 12 seats across the county where councillors were elected last time with a majority of less than five per cent – including seven held by conservatives.

But regardless of the political results there will be a number of new faces in the council chamber next month – with 20 sitting councillors not standing.

Among those stepping down this time are executive member for resources and performance Cllr Ralph Sangster and executive member for public health Cllr Tim Hutchings.

Members are routinely elected every four years in ‘all-out’ elections – with the last set of full elections held in 2017.

But since 2017 then there have been three by-elections (Goff’s Oak and Bury Green, St Albans North and Three Rivers Rural).

And two councillors (one elected as a Conservative and one Labour) have left their parties to become ‘independent’.

Dacorum

There are 10 county councillors elected from divisions in Dacorum, which focusses around the Hemel Hempstead area.

Currently eight of those 10 seats are held by Conservatives and two by Lib Dems.

Conservative, Labour, Liberal Democrat and Green candidates are standing in every one of the county council seats within Dacorum – with a Reform candidate standing in Bridgewater and independent Jan Maddern in Hemel Hempstead South East.

Serving councillors Ian Reay (Cons, Berkhamsted), Tina Howard (Cons, Hemel Hempstead South East) and Nick Hollinghurst (Lib Dem, Tring) are not standing again.

The seat within the Dacorum area with the smallest margin in 2017 was Berkhamsted – where the Conservatives polled just 96 more votes than the Liberal Democrats.

Here's a list of the candidates standing for each county council seat in Dacorum:

Berkhamsted

Cameron Brady-Turner (Labour)

Peter Matthews (Conservative)

Joe Stopps (Green Party)

Nigel Taylor (Liberal Democrats)

Bridgewater

Terry Douris (Conservative)

Vanessa Mitchell (Labour)

Lara Pringle (Liberal Democrats)

Emily Spry (Green Party)

Noel Willcox (Reform UK)

Hemel Hempstead East

Paul De Hoest (Green Party)

Ijlal Malik (Labour)

Anna Wellings Purvis (Liberal Democrats)

Andrew Williams (Conservative)

Hemel Hempstead North East

Neil Kennedy (Liberal Democrats)

Saba Poursaeedi (Labour)

Paul Sandford (Green Party)

Colette Wyatt-Lowe (Conservative)

Hemel Hempstead North West

Gary Adamson (Labour)

Fiona Guest (Conservative)

Sherief Hassan (Green Party)

Diane Wilson (Liberal Democrats)

Hemel Hempstead South East

Sanjay Jamuar (Conservative)

David Lillywhite (Green Party)

Jan Maddern (Independent)

Mandi Tattershall (Labour Party)

Joe Toovey (Liberal Democrats)

Hemel Hempstead St Pauls

Bernard Hurley (Green Party)

Luke Jordan (Labour)

Soma Pemmireddy (Conservative)

Ron Tindall (Liberal Democrats)

Hemel Hempstead Town

Samuel Deering (Green Party)

Adrian England (Liberal Democrats)

Tessa Milligan (Labour)

William Wyatt-Lowe (Conservative)

Tring

Gbola Adeleke (Conservative)

Jim Lawler (Labour)

Roger Oliver (Green Party)

Sally Symington (Liberal Democrats)

Kings Langley

Rob Eilbeck (Labour)

Ashley Lawrence (Green Party)

Richard Roberts (Conservative)

Dominic Sokalski (Liberal Democrats).

The next county council election is on Thursday, May 6.

Voters in Dacorum will also decide who they want to take up the role of Police and Crime Commissioner for Hertfordshire – the contest was due to take place last year, but was delayed due to the pandemic.

Here's the three main party candidates chosen in the race to be Hertfordshire's next police boss.