Voting will take place next Thursday to see who’ll be on Cornwall Council for the next four years.

With 87 seats available this year – down from 123 – prospective Cornwall Councillors are busy out canvassing, keen to win the confidence and votes of residents in their area.

South East Cornwall will have 14 representatives at County Hall after May 6, with each Councillor representing a bigger area and more people than ever before.

In this week’s edition of the Cornish Times, we have given each candidate the opportunity to speak and tell readers why they are standing and their key priorities if they get elected. With just a short word count for each, it’s interesting to see how each prospective councillor has cut through to the very heart of why they want your vote! There’s also photos of each person, in case you haven’t had the chance to meet some of the candidates on your doorstep.

Every resident over 18 is being encouraged to use their vote next Thursday – as the formation of a new Cornwall Council will have a profound impact on many aspects of daily life in the county.

With a budget of more than £1billion, the Council is the biggest employer in Cornwall with a staff of some 12,000 salaried workers. It is responsible for services including: schools, social services, leisure, housing, rubbish collection and recycling, roads, and planning.

Cornwall Council has more powers than many other local authorities after a devolution deal agreed in 2015: this gave it the chance to run local transport services, and to bring together health and social care in the county to better serve residents. Business support, low carbon energy, and employment and skills also come under the devolved powers remit.

Around a quarter of public spending is done by your local authority – not by central Government.

The organisation ‘Voting Counts’ sets out just some of the good reasons to use your vote next week:

* Your local council has an impact on many of the services you see and use every day, including housing, transport and public spaces. Choices made by the council will have visible impacts on your community, make sure that you’ve been part of choosing who makes these decisions.

* You can vote for candidates who have a similar vision for the future of your community as you do.

* Local councils set the rates of Council Tax for your area, these rates have a direct impact on your income as well as the services in your area.

* Councillors represent a much smaller group of people than MPs do, that means your single vote is more likely to make an impact on the result.