The BBC has reporters across the country to keep us up to speed with the results in their area. In Cambridgeshire, the whole of East Cambridgeshire and Fenland district councils are up for election, while a third of seats are being contested at Cambridge City Council.

Image source, Google

East Cambridgeshire has 39 councillors: 35 Conservatives, three Liberal Democrats and one independent. Fenland also has 39 councillors: 33 Conservative, three independents and three Lib Dems.

Cambridge City Council is under Labour control. Of its 42 councillors, 25 are Labour, 13 are Liberal Democrats, and there are two independents and one Green councillor, plus one vacancy.

Ben Schofield
Political correspondent, BBC Look East

Image source, PA

Most of these council seats were last contested in 2015. If a week is a long time in politics, then four years is a lifetime.

Back then, the Conservatives won a surprise majority in the General Election and the party’s national popularity helped local Tory groups pick up dozens of council seats.

It means that while Labour and the Liberal Democrats are defending around half their total number of seats on our councils, the Conservatives are defending three quarters of them. That’s a huge ask, even before policies or the public’s mood come into it.

Peterborough will be closely scrutinised. Anger remains over the former Labour MP Fiona Onasanya’s criminal conviction and refusal to quit. Conservatives hold the council with a majority of just one – a small shift could lead it into no overall control or further strengthen their standing.

Labour has minority control of Milton Keynes Council, supported by Liberal Democrats. But the Tories are the largest party. Will Labour pick up enough seats for an outright majority? They would need to pick up eight, which will be tough.

Elsewhere, Bedford will elect a mayor. Can the Liberal Democrat incumbent Dave Hodgson secure a fourth term?