And they’re off!

The runners in riders in next month’s local elections have been announced, and the official ward by ward candidate lists can be read below.

Names and battlegrounds that jump out include former Conservatives Richard Barnes in Harefield and Andrew Retter in Northwood Hills.

Both men are labelled ‘Independent’, so avoiding the temptation of taking a swipe at the party that deselected them by using a ‘Conservative-related’ name.

All party names must be registered with the Electoral Commission, and the Conservative Party nationally has apparently locked up a number of variations on the ‘C’ word, to avoid its name being hijacked.

So up and down the country, Tories will put their cross in the box next to ‘Local Conservative’ candidates’ names.

The British National Party has only one candidate north of the A40 - Gavin Cardy in South Ruislip, who will take on, among others, this year’s mayor, Councillor Allan Kauffman, whose term of office will be over by polling day on May 22 but who is looking to keep his seat.

The far right is also putting up a candidate in Harefield. Ian Edward is the man from the wordy ‘National Front Putting Britain First’ for the village ward where only two seats are up for grabs.

Down south, the appropriately named Maddie Hayes is standing in Townfield ward. Wasn’t she the woman from the 1980s series Moonlighting?

Prepare for a Major battle in the borough’s most easterly ward, Cavendish, as husband-and-wife team John and Lesley Major try to improve Labour’s standings in a ward where the party came third in 2010.

And in Yeading, Labour member Sid Garg has stood down and been replaced. By his wife.

Starter’s orders are at 7am on May 22, with the winning post in site at 10pm when polls close, followed by the parade ring and winners’ enclosure some time in the wee hours.

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