The local elections are just around the corner, with everyone in England and Wales able to vote in either council, metro mayor or police and crime commissioner elections, or a combination of the three.

With the Conservatives behind in national polling, the increasing importance of independent candidates, and some bellwether mayoral and council contests taking place on 2 May, there is a lot to talk about.

In this special Local Authority episode, LGC deputy editor Martin George is joined by editor Sarah Calkin and head of news Kirsty Weakley to discuss all this and more. The trio are joined by elections expert Colin Rallings who explains why he thinks the Tories could lose up to 500 seats, and by Andrew Carter, chief executive of Centre for Cities, to talk about its recent polling about the metro mayors.

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