Voters in Reading head to the polls on Thursday, May 7 to elect 17 councillors to Reading Borough Council. Polling stations are open 7am-10pm; you need valid ID (see the Electoral Commission) and your polling card or the Where Do I Vote? website for your station.
Labour has run the council since 2012. This is the first council election since the Labour government took office in July 2024.
Seats are being fought across 16 wards, with Caversham Heights electing two councillors.
Labour, the Greens, the Liberal Democrats, the Conservatives and Reform UK all have full slates of candidates.
Polling site Britain Votes Now predicts a big Green gain: 11 seats for the Greens, three for Labour, and one each for the Conservatives and Liberal Democrats. If that happens, three lead councillors would lose their seats.
The Labour lead councillors facing possible defeat are Karen Rowland (environmental services and community safety, standing in Abbey), Adele Barnett-Ward (leisure and culture, Thames) and Ellie Emberson (corporate services and resources, Coley).
Other Labour councillors who could lose out to the Greens are Glenn Dennis (Kentwood) and Jacopo Lanzoni (Caversham). Britain Votes Now also projects Councillor Clarence Mitchell, standing for Reform UK in Emmer Green, to lose his seat.
The prediction does not take the casual vacancy in Caversham Heights into account after Labour councillor Sam Juthani resigned before his term ended.
The tactical voting tool Stop Reform UK and the Tories, run by Forward Democracy, advises voting Labour in seven wards; it lists Emmer Green, Southcote, Whitley, Church, Thames and Kentwood, and urges using both votes for Labour in Caversham Heights.
The site also says the Conservatives and Reform UK cannot win in Abbey, Battle, Katesgrove, Park, Coley and Tilehurst.
If the Britain Votes Now prediction holds, Labour would keep control with 26 councillors, the Greens would double to 16, and the Liberal Democrats and Conservatives would each have three seats.
James Aldridge, Local Democracy Reporter
