VOTING has opened for the all-out council elections and people across the town have already had their say.

Polling stations opened at 7am this morning and candidates for all parties are hoping that the public chooses them to represent their ward.

In the Eastcott ward, just under 40 people had turned out to vote at King William Street Primary School before 9.15am. David John Samuel, 32, of Lansdown Road, who walked down with his parents Gary and Judith Samuel, gave three votes to the Conservatives.

He said: “To be honest, I’m a hard-core Conservative anyway, I will vote loyally. I don’t really think there’s been any specific issues that’s made me think there’s much difference between any of the local candidates.

“I just vote with my heart, and my heart always says Conservative. I couldn’t bring myself to vote Labour and despite the coalition I couldn’t even bring myself to vote Lib Dem.”

Mr Samuel said he thought that turnout would be low due to the national political situation.

He said: “I don’t think there will be enough people who will bother to vote this time, with the fact we have the double-dip recession, I think there will be a natural apathy.”

John Fox, 71, of King John Street, put his three crosses next to the Lib Dem candidates and hoped they would hold the seat, which is a key battleground between the Lib Dems and Labour.

“I have been voting wholly on local issues, Old Town issues,” he said. “I went with them because they’re the people that say they keep in touch and they do keep in touch. They communicate well.”

Tonight we will be breaking all the election news from from count as it happens online and you can find out who has won, who has lost and how the council is shaping up in the biggest election for a decade.

The first wards are expected to be called at 12.30am.

There will be a full round-up and analysis of the night in Saturday's paper with a full list of councillors.