The full list of candidates in Cambridge’s local elections has been announced, with three students and eight members of University staff standing for seats on the City Council.

This year’s elections, which will take place on Thursday 7 May, will cover 15 of the City Council’s 42 seats. 13 of Cambridge’s wards will elect one representative, while Trumpington Ward will elect two, following the resignation of serving councillor Nadya Lokhmotova.

The Labour Party has had a majority on the City Council since 2014, and currently holds 23 of the 42 seats, followed by the Liberal Democrats with 11 seats, and the Green Party with six. The Conservatives and Your Party both hold one seat each.

Cambridge City Council is responsible for services such as maintaining green spaces, waste collection, and council housing. The Council is led by Cameron Holloway of the Labour Party, who studied German and Russian at Cambridge and is standing for re-election this year.

Cambridge is one of five local authorities selected to trial a system of early voting in these elections. Residents will be able to cast their votes in person from 30 April to 2 June, at three voting hubs around the city.

After April 2028, the City Council is set to be merged into a larger unitary authority. In January, councillors rejected the possibility of delaying the elections until after the restructuring, the exact format of which will be decided this summer.

Two of the candidates in this year’s elections for the Green Party are current students at Cambridge University. Alex Sage, a third year PBS student at Wolfson, is standing in Castle Ward; Chloe Mosonyi, who is studying for a neuroscience PhD at Queens’, is running in Trumpington.

Mosonyi told Varsity that the Greens have “the policies to challenge Labour’s business-as-usual approach to the social and climate crises facing the city”. She said her key concerns are “unaffordable housing, a high cost of living, and the erosion of community spaces”.

“I’m especially hoping to secure more support for young people,” she added. Mosonyi claimed that studying for a PhD has prepared her for local politics by forcing her to “adapt to unexpected challenges” and giving her a “collaborative mindset”.

Meanwhile, Sage said that the breadth of the PBS tripos “can be a lot like spinning plates,” which has equipped him for the world of politics where you must constantly “shift perspective and draw on local knowledge”.

Sage said he hopes to bridge the ‘town and gown’ divide to create “a more united and fairer Cambridge”. The candidate dismissed concerns about the futility of local politics, telling Varsity: “The only way to move towards a politics that works for ordinary people is to start making positive changes in local communities.”

The final student candidate is Sam Worthington, who is undertaking an MPhil in Ethics of AI, Data and Algorithms at Jesus, and is standing in Coleridge Ward for the Conservatives.

Of the staff running in the elections, five are representing the Lib Dems, and two are representing the Greens. Meanwhile, Maruf Ahmed, the Labour candidate for Queen Edith’s Ward, is an IT support analyst at Cambridge Enterprise, the University’s commercial wing.

Luke Patterson, who studied HSPS at Lucy Cavendish and now works at Trinity College as Schools Liaison Officer, is running as the Liberal Democrat candidate in Castle Ward. He told Varsity that he wanted “to bring a sense of hope back to politics, and make people’s everyday lives that little bit better”.

Patterson continued: “Locally, I want to tackle the climate crisis by enhancing biodiversity and protecting our environment; campaign for community facilities in our new build neighbourhoods; and to be loud and proud of our city’s progressive values and stand up to the divisive politics of Reform UK.”

Amanda Taylor, who works at Cambridge University Press, is standing for reelection in Queen Edith’s Ward. Explaining her choice of party, Taylor said: “I am a founder member of the Liberal Democrats and was previously in the Liberal Party. I have been campaigning for the party since my teenage years.”

The councillor added that her key goals include improving “provision for sustainable travel such as walking, cycling and public transport,” giving greater “attention to anti-social behaviour” and ensuring social housing is “better maintained, with prompt repairs and attention to issues such as damp and mould”.

Dr John Walmsley, Facility Manager at the Wolfson Electron Microscopy Suite within the Department of Materials Science and Metallurgy, is running in Romsey Ward.

Walmsley said he chose the Liberal Democrats due to “lifelong frustration with the two-party system” and “feeling let down badly with respect to the UK’s relationship with the European Union”.

The candidate continued: “My key focus would be on city services and the environment, including restoring levels of public services, retaining thriving high-street environments and improving maintenance of council housing.”

Also standing for the Lib Dems is Olaf Hauk, who works in the MRC Cognition and Brain Sciences Unit at Cambridge, and is standing for re-election in Trumpington, as well as Dr Ahmad Rushdhi, an undergraduate clinical supervisor running in Cherry Hinton.

Standing for the Greens in West Chesterton, Hannah Copley is close to completing a PhD Clinical Research Training Fellowship at Jesus. The other Green staff candidate is Eleanor Toye Scott, a researcher in the Department of Computer Science and Technology, who is running in Newnham Ward.

She told Varsity that she hopes to apply her research on “environmental decision-making” to local politics. The candidate continued: “I’m particularly interested in how councils can support climate action that is fair, evidence-based, and delivers real benefits for communities, through better planning, energy efficiency, and protecting nature locally.”

She added that she is focused on “practical issues that affect daily life” such as “housing affordability, access to green space, sustainable transport, and the quality of local services”.

Additionally, Godfrey Orr – son of the Cambridge theologian and senior adviser to Nigel Farage James Orr – is running in East Chesterton as a Reform candidate.