TWO leaders, one deputy leader and four cabinet members will be fighting for their seats when the Black Country goes to the local election polls in May.

In total, 88 councillors will be elected, of which 69 currently hold a seat and a further one - Labour’s Sandra Marcella Samuels, in Wolverhampton - faces no competition.

Walsall leader Mike Bird faces re-election and sees his cabinet member Barbara McCracken compete in a different ward. Coun Bird’s Conservatives have 11 seats up for grabs.

Five Labour seats are being contested, plus one Liberal Democrat and the sole Democratic Labour seat. The only two independents are also up for re-election.

Dudley Council’s Anne Millward is the other leader facing re-election, as is cabinet member David Simms. Coun Millward’s Tories are fighting to hold onto 13 seats, Labour 10 and the Liberal Democrats their one and only councillor in the borough.

Deputy leader of Labour-led Sandwell Council Steve Eling is up for re-election along with cabinet member Anne Shackleton. Twenty other Labour seats are being contested, plus one each for the Conservatives and Liberal Democrats.

Wolverhampton’s newly-created Labour leadership will hope cabinet member Milkinderpal Singh Jaspal can hold his seat.

Nine other Labour seats are being contested, plus there’s the guaranteed return of Coun Samuels. Seven Tory seats are also up for grabs, plus two Liberal Democrats’.

Full list of local election candidates:
(links open as pdf documents)
>Dudley
>Sandwell
>Walsall
>Wolverhampton