Voting is underway in a crucial and hotly contested Liverpool Council by-election.
Residents in Fazakerley are heading to the polls today to vote in an intriguing contest that could shed some light on the future political battles that lie ahead for the city. The north Liverpool council seat is available after former Labour councillor Lindsay Melia quit her position. She was one of a number of former Labour members to split with the city's ruling party in a row over budget decisions earlier this year.
While Ms Melia quit the council altogether, the other splitting Labour members kept their seats and joined with a number of other ex-Labour members to form a new independent grouping on the council, standing in opposition to Labour. That grouping is now known as the Liverpool Community Independents and today is their first major electoral test.
READ MORE: Labour accused of 'stitch-up' over Fazakerley by-election selection
The independents have put forward local candidate Laura Wharton to try and capture the Fazakerley seat. How she gets on in a seat that Labour carried with a 67% majority in 2021 will be fascinating.
Labour will be hoping to retain the seat via their candidate Helen Stephens with the party already holding the other two seats in the ward, while the Liberal Democrats will also be hoping to have a major say through their candidate Jack Williams. Green Party candidate Paul Corry will also be looking for a decent result.
While today's result will be intriguing in terms of what it says about politics right now in the city, it could also offer a glimpse of battles in the future. Liverpool Council is set to undergo some fundamental changes that will make its elections next year a very different prospect.
Sweeping changes brought in as part of a recovery package in the wake of the damning findings of last year's Caller Report will mean that from next year, the council will move to all out elections, where every single council seat is up for grabs in elections held every four years. This is a change from the current system where a third of seats is elected in every three of four years.
As if that isn't a big enough change, the council's electoral ward map is also set to dramatically change. The current make-up of thirty wards, each represented by three councillors, is likely to change to a very different map of 71 smaller city wards, with the majority represented by just one councillor. These changes are set to be confirmed in the coming months.
The sweeping reforms could have a major impact on the elections next year and today's result could give something of an indication as to how things might go in the future. Voting is taking place between 7am and 10pm in Fazakerley today and we are expecting a result around midnight.
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