People will go to the polls on May 4 to pick who should represent them at Suffolk County Council. Paul Geater looks at the Waveney area.

Waveney has always been a crucial battlefield in the race for control of Suffolk County Council – the seats have traditionally been fought over by Labour and the Tories.

In 2009, in the last days of the Labour government, the Conservatives took all but one seat in the district – the Lowestoft South seat that was the first won by UKIP in Suffolk.

For four years Bill Mountford was a lone presence for his party in the council chamber at Endeavour House. Then in the election four years ago he was joined by colleagues from across the county. Now the party is defending three seats in Waveney: two in Lowestoft South and one in Oulton. However, UKIP in the district appears to be split.

Mr Mountford, the leader of the county group, was not selected to fight for the party again and is standing as independent against two official UKIP candidates in his division.

That has given hope to Labour whose candidates finished in third and fourth place in the two-seat division last time around.

Labour is also aiming to topple UKIP's Bert Poole who won one of the two seats at Oulton in 2013 alongside Labour's Len Jacklin.

The Conservatives hold seats in the 'country' part of the district – representing towns like Beccles, Bungay, Halesworth and Southwold, but held none in Lowestoft itself after 2013.

However a collapse in the UKIP vote could give them hope in the Oulton division where the election was very tight between the three parties last time.

And they could benefit from a slip in UKIP support in Pakefield where Labour councillors Sonia Barker and Peter Byatt won a tight contest.

Former county council leader Mark Bee is one of two Tory candidates in Beccles.

Beccles is a division where the Greens think they are in with a chance – they finished just 127 votes behind the second Conservative in the two-seat division last time.

Labour and independents did win county council seats in all these market towns in county council elections in the 1990s and early 2000s – but in recent elections have been pegged back to just the Lowestoft urban seats in the Waveney District.

The current political make-up of Suffolk County Council is Conservatives (37), Labour (15), UKIP (9), Lib Dems (8), independents (3) and Greens (2).

These are the candidates from the Waveney area who are standing in the Suffolk County Council elections.

An asterisk (*) next to a candidates name denotes that they are the sitting councillor.

Bungay (CONS held)

Andrew BOLS (UKIP)

Sue COLLINS (Labour)

Pauline MIDWINTER (Green)

Dave O'NEILL (Lib Dem)

* David RITCHIE (Conservative)

Beccles (Both seats CONS held)

* Mark BEE (Conservative)

Nasima BEGUM (Labour)

Elfrede BRAMBLEY-CRAWSHAW (Green)

Graham CATCHPOLE (Conservative)

Pat HAWES (UKIP)

Josi HORNE (Green)

Tarek LAHIN (Labour)

Simon MACDOWALL (Lib Dem)

Mike SHAW (UKIP)

Caroline WAY (Lib Dem)

Gunton (Both seats LAB held)

Steve ARDLEY (Conservative)

Emma-Jane BATEMAN (Green)

Rupert BUTLIN (Green)

* Janet CRAIG (Labour)

Bernie GUYMER (UKIP)

Jenny HINTON (UKIP)

* Keith PATIENCE (Labour)

Mary RUDD (Conservative)

Steven TAYLOR (Lib Dem)

Halesworth (CONS held)

Alice BULL (Green)

Peter COGHILL (Labour)

* Tony GOLDSON (Conservative)

Sarah HUNT (Lib Dem)

James SCOTT (UKIP)

Kessingland and Southwold (CONS held)

David BEAVAN (Lib Dem)

Jean Valerie DIFFORD (UKIP)

* Michael LADD (Conservative)

Callum ROLLO (Green)

Paul TYACK (Labour)

Lowestoft South (UKIP held)

Desmond BALDRY (Independent)

Jenny CERESA (Conservative)

Peter COLLECOTT (UKIP)

David FINNIGAN (Labour)

Tess GANDY (Labour)

Steve HARVEY (UKIP)

Peter LANG (Green)

Darius McCARTHY (Lib Dem)

Mark MORAN (Green)

* Bill MOUNTFORD (Independent)

Jamie STARLING (Conservative)

Sandra TONGE (Lib Dem)

Oulton (UKIP/LAB held)

Peter EYRES (Green)

Patrick GILLARD (Lib Dem)

George HAWES (UKIP)

* Len JACKLIN (Labour)

Sally PHILLIPS (Green)

* Bert POOLE (UKIP)

James REEDER (Conservative)

Keith ROBINSON (Conservative)

Chris THOMAS (Lib Dem)

Lynne WARD (Labour)

Pakefield (Both LAB held)

* Sonia BARKER (Labour)

* Peter BYATT (Labour)

Rachel FAWKES (Green)

Robin HINTON (UKIP)

Christian NEWSOME (Lib Dem)

Ben QUAIL (Green)

Craig RIVETT (Conservative)

Adam ROBERTSON (Lib Dem)

Phillip TRINDALL (UKIP)

Melanie VIGO DI GALLIDORO (Conservative)