Campaigning has begun for next month’s local elections, in which two students and five staff members at the University of Cambridge are standing.

The two students running in the Cambridgeshire County Council election on May 1 are both members of the Green Party. Among the staff members, three are Labour members and two are Greens.

The County Council elections take place every four years, unlike the City Council elections, which occur three out of every four years. All seats on the County Council are up for election this year.

However, two City Council by-elections are also being held this year, in the East and West Chesterton wards, following the resignation of former councillors Sam Carling and Alice Gilderdale.

Currently, the Liberal Democrats are the largest party in the County Council with 23 councillors, followed by the Conservatives with 21 councillors. Labour has ten councillors and there are seven independent councillors. The Conservatives lost control of the County Council after the last election in 2021.

The County Council is responsible for providing a number of services across the county, including highway maintenance, adult and children’s social care, education, and running libraries

Meanwhile, Labour controls the City Council. In last year’s City Council elections, six students stood for office, all of whom were unsuccessful aside from Carling, a former PhD student at Christ’s and now the MP for North-West Cambridgeshire following the 2024 general election.

The 2025 local elections will be on a smaller scale than usual for this point in the electoral cycle, with over 1,600 seats contested at 23 councils across England. This is because scheduled votes in nine English council areas have been postponed until 2026 to allow time for a reorganisation of local authorities.

Esmé Hennessy and Chloe Mosonyi are the two students standing for the Green Party, with the former running in Market and the latter in Trumpington. Both candidates have made environmental and housing issues central to their campaigns.

Running against Hennessy in Market is the incumbent Labour County Councillor Nick Gay, Professor of Molecular and Cellular Biochemistry and a Fellow at Christ’s.

Meanwhile, Churchill College Alumni Officer Elizabeth McWilliams is standing for Labour in Castle. Yvonne Novis, Head of Science Information Services at the University Library (UL), is running for Labour in Newnham.

The two University staff standing for the Greens are Hannah Charlotte Copley (Chesterton), MRC Clinical Research Training Fellow at Addenbrooke’s, and Peter Rees (Newnham), History of Innovation Project Archivist at the UL. Copley is also running in the City Council by-election for West Chesterton ward.

Esmé Hennessy (Green, Market): “The Greens are the fastest growing party in Cambridge, challenging the incumbents on environmental pollution, transport, and housing, the most important issue in Cambridge. As a student at Lucy Cavendish, I’m fully aware that we are not immune from this crisis, with rising college rents hitting our static maintenance loans. Yet the Lib Dem run county council and Labour run city council have both failed us on housing and the cost of living. They have failed to keep the far right out of British politics. Our representatives are out of touch because young people don’t turn up to the polls, losing our opportunity to make a real difference. Local elections are often so close; this is our chance to elect a council which won’t fail on the key issues.”

Chloe Mosonyi (Green, Trumpington): “I’m running for County Council because we need more Green voices to advocate for a reliable and affordable public transport network, genuinely affordable housing, more rights for tenants, and to respond adequately to the climate crisis. There is a growing appetite for change in Cambridge: the Green Party achieved a record vote share at the last General Election, and has been gaining more seats locally than any other party. Greens have the policies to challenge Labour, the Lib Dems and Conservatives on their poor response to the social and environmental challenges we’re facing in Cambridge. Now more than ever, I want to join our existing elected Greens in building a positive and sustainable future for Cambridge.”

Cllr Nick Guy (Labour, Market): “I am standing for re-election because I believe that local government has a central role to play in decarbonisation and climate change. Projects like Swaffham Prior need to be rolled out at scale if we are to meet our climate goals. The establishment of GB energy by the Government provides the framework for delivering these ambitions: “to support Local and Combined Authorities, and Community Energy Groups in accessing funding, the Local Power Plan will also provide commercial, technical and project‑planning assistance” (see GB Energy). Projects underway include a proposed distributed heat network for central Cambridge and I am keen to be involved in their delivery.”

Elizabeth McWilliams (Labour, Newnham): “I’ve been the Alumni and Events Officer at one of the Colleges in the Castle area (where I was once a student) for over eight years. It’s a people-focused job around bringing a community together, delivering results to a deadline, and teamwork. I always say I won’t take no for an answer and I’m a community activist by nature. As a workplace staff rep, I successfully argued for sick pay for probationary staff. As a Parish Councillor, I secured repairs for council tenants outside the City after the Lib Dem-led Council turned them down. I also successfully pushed that Council to sign up to the White Ribbon campaign (engaging men and boys to end violence against women and girls) after an initial refusal. I want to be a County Councillor to help solve problems, to serve residents and work with officers to protect the best of Castle and make it an even better place to be!”

Peter Rees (Green, Newnham): “I was shocked to learn that there are 61 County Councillors for Cambridgeshire, and not one of them is Green. The authorities are not taking the climate seriously. It is the elephant in the room. Who is going to speak out? Having witnessed the effects of the climate crisis here in Newnham, I am determined to make green growth a priority!”

Hannah Charlotte Copley (Green, Chesterton and West Chesterton): “I am standing for election as a Green Party candidate for Chesterton Division (County Council) and West Chesterton Ward (City Council) to work towards a fairer, greener neighbourhood (where I live). I will ensure every decision made by the County Council and City Council has inequality and runaway climate change at the forefront. As a medical doctor I see climate breakdown as the major health threat facing humanity. I would work to achieve a safer more connected segregated cycle network in this area and safer routes for pedestrians, all council activities to be done with the minimum emissions, and investment in new low carbon infrastructure and genuinely affordable housing.”

Yvonne Nobis (Labour, Newnham): “I am standing for Labour in the County Council Elections as I am committed to equality of opportunity and I find it galling that I live in one of the most unequal cities in the UK. I have skills in negotiation, publishing (previous career) and communication. I am committed to the improvement of social care and all aspects of the education experience (I would say this being an academic librarian!). I am a union caseworker, and specialise in equality and discrimination cases, including for our graduate student members.”