Polling stations open in key vote

7:58am Thursday 1st May 2008

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VOTING is under way across Warrington in this year's council elections.

Nineteen seats are up for grabs in the borough vote with a number of parish councillors also up for re-election.

It could be an historic day for the town's Liberal Democrats.

They need to take two seats from Labour to take an overall majority on the council - having run the town in a joint administration with the Conservatives for the past two years.

It would be the first time that the Liberal Democrats have run the council in Warrington.

The best chance of wins appears in Bewsey and Whitecross, where Lib Dem parliamentary hopeful Jo Crotty takes on Labour's Hitesh Patel, and in Whittle Hall where red rose stalwart John Morris has stood down.

The Lib Dems already boast the other two councillors in that ward.

There could also be close contests in a three-way battle in Penketh, where former Mayor George Warburton defends for Labour, and in Poulton South where former colleagues Dave Eccles and Colin Froggatt fight it out - Eccles having defected to the Lib Dems.

The polls are open until 10pm today.

Council bosses are telling voters who have not recieved polling cards following a postal mix-up that they can still vote today amid fears of a poor turnout.

We will have full coverage from the count, which this year takes place at Woolston Leisure Centre, from 11pm tonight.