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Local elections 2022 preview: Waltham Forest

Waltham Forest council elections 2022 will take place on the 5 May.

The borough was created in 1965 replacing three local authorities: Chingford Borough Council, Leyton Borough Council and Walthamstow Borough Council.

The borough held its first local elections in the 1960s and has been overwhelmingly Labour ever since with the exception of a brief Conservative majority from 1968 to 1971.

In the 2018 elections, Labour won with 46 seats out of 60 while Conservative had 14.

Since the last boundary changes in 2002, 60 councillors have been elected from 20 wards, with 3 councillors per ward.

All 60 members of Waltham Forest London Borough Council will be elected this year.

You can find out who is running in this years election here.

In 2020, The Local Government Boundary Commission for England published final recommendations on how to redraw the political map of the borough. 

For Waltham Forest this meant creating two new wards: Upper Walthamstow and St James.

Waltham Forest is home to an estimated 276,940 residents as of mid-2020 and 102,800 households.

The borough is one of the most diverse areas in the country with an estimated 53% of residents are from a minority ethnic background.

This year, Labour pledges to 

  • Invest in the communities future with a new university campus, four new health centers and four new youth clubs
  • Make streets safer by installing more street lighting and additional CCTV
  • Help residents through the pandemic and cost of living crisis
  • Build 1000 new council homes

The Conservative party for Waltham Forest want to save green spaces and stop the building of high rises across Chingford and Highams Park.

Polling stations will be open from 7am to 10pm on the day.

To find your nearest polling station click here

Results will be on the Waltham Forest twitter page and they will be live on their website.

Featured image: RachelH_@Flickr (CC BY 2.0)

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