Final push as voters prepare to go to polls in the West Midlands
Candidates standing in the local and European elections were today making their final bid to win over voters - as people were urged to concentrate on local issues and not national matters when they go to the ballot box.
Six councils in the Black Country, Cannock Chase and Wyre Forest are electing a third of their councillors.
The vote is the last in local authorities before next year's General Election and is vital for all the main parties who will rely on councillors to present examples of their policies in action all over the country.
> For the full list of all council election candidates, click here.
> For the full list of EU candidates, click here.
Mike Bird, leader of Walsall's Conservative group, is facing the toughest challenge from Labour on Thursday, as the party tries to end 14 years of Conservative control and win back the last Black Country borough held by a coalition.
But Councillor Bird said he believed the rise of UKIP, which is fielding candidates in every ward in the borough, will render the result unpredictable.
UKIP is facing its own challenges in the European election with former members having formed their own anti-EU parties.
Meanwhile the Labour leader in Wolverhampton, Councillor Roger Lawrence, says it has been a 'nasty' election campaign that has dragged on for three weeks due to having to coincide with the European Parliament vote.
Labour brought its national leader Ed Miliband to Walsall to rally support for the vote. He set out plans to reform the minimum wage if the party gets back into power nationally.
Councillor Bird said: "We're urging people to vote local. Forget Westminster and Europe when you're looking at the council ballot paper.
"It doesn't change a thing. UKIP talks about immigration and Europe but that's not about how the bins are emptied or the street lights stay on.
"It's nothing to do with the running of the council.
"We're telling people that if they vote UKIP they might get Labour back in.
"And that's like inviting the burglar back to fit the burglar alarm."
Councillor Lawrence said: "This was always going to be a nasty election anyway because it's been delayed by three weeks.
"That's longer to campaign and people are getting frazzled.
"Councillors are always anxious at this time of year, even if they think they have a safe seat because you can't take anything for granted.
"We're going to have to make some horrid decisions.
"In Wolverhampton the Tories haven't put forward an alternative budget so they're left with negative campaigning."
Council elections are taking place in Wolverhampton, Walsall, Sandwell, Dudley, Cannock Chase and Wyre Forest.
Meanwhile 10 parties are standing for election for seven West Midlands seats in the European Parliament.
Currently, the Tories have three while Labour and the Lib Dems have one each. UKIP won two seats in 2009 but both its West Midlands MEPs have quit the party and formed their own breakaway Eurosceptic groups and are fielding a full slate of candidates of their own.
UKIP leader Nigel Farage is concerned that one of them, An Independence from Europe, formed by Birmingham based MEP Mike Nattrass, could cost it votes. It will appear at the top of the ballot paper because its name begins with 'A'.
"If you believe the opinion polls, Labour and Ukip are neck and neck," Mr Farage said.
"And if people go and vote for this non-party that masquerades as being us that could well cost us the election, and that is very worrying.
"There could be a large number of people who vote for a party different from the one they intended to vote for. This is supposed to be democracy."
