Bishop's Stortford Town Council election: New wards on May 4

Bishop's Stortford has been split into nine wards for the town council election on May 4.

The number of seats up for grabs stays at 17, but members will represent four more divisions.

New boundaries mean eight wards – All Saints, Central, Chantry, Parsonage, Silverleys, South, Thorley Manor North and Thorley Manor South – will have two seats each. The ninth, Waterside, will have one member.

Currently, voters in Central and South wards elect four councillors each and All Saints, Meads and Silverleys three each.

Only the Conservatives are fielding a full slate. The nine wards will be contested by 38 hopefuls: 17 Conservatives, 11 Liberal Democrats, nine Labour and one Independent. There are no Green Party candidates.

The council currently has 12 Conservatives, four Lib Dems and one Labour member, Cllr Jill Sortwell. She is not standing again and neither is Lib Dem Terence Beckett or Conservatives Judith Ranger and Shane Manning. The latter is an East Herts Council candidate.