AS voters go to the polls for the General Election tomorrow (July 4), people in one York ward will be asked to vote twice.

A by-election is set to take place for City of York Council’s Hull Road ward on Thursday, July 4, following the resignation of sitting Labour councillor Sophie Kelley.

The Labour group said in a statement that Miss Kelley had struggled to balance the demands of being a councillor with her personal circumstances.

It comes as voters across York and the country are also set to head to the polls for the general election on Thursday, July 4.

Hull Road ward, in the east of the city, falls within the York Central constituency.

Prior to Miss Kelley’s resignation, Labour held 24 out of the 47 seats on York Council, giving it an overall majority of one.

Labour would still remain the largest group on the council if they lose the election but it would be mathematically possible for opposition groups to combine to out-vote them.

The Liberal Democrat opposition has 19 councillors while the Conservative group has three and there is one independent.

John Moroney is standing to retain Labour’s hold on the seat in a four-way race.

The Liberal Democrat candidate is Andrew Mortimer, with Ellis Holden standing for the Conservatives and Ben French for the Green Party.

Retired GP Mr Moroney said he was particularly interested in health and social care issues and was excited about Labour’s free school meals pilot.

Mr Moritmer said he and other Liberal Democrats had campaigned locally against the dumping of sewage in Hull Road Park’s beck and he wanted to tackle litter and graffiti.

Conservative Mr Holden said he wanted to fight for more housing and said both Labour and the Liberal Democrats had failed to secure a Local Plan for York.

Green Mr French said he wanted to work to try and bring rental costs down and tackle issues such as damp and mould.

Miss Kelley won the Hull Road ward seat for Labour in 2019, when the party took control of the council for the first time since 2015.

She and Labour councillors Anna Baxter and Michael Pavlovic took the ward’s three seats with a total of 3,833 votes out of the 6,906 ballots cast overall.

Liberal Democrat candidate for Thursday’s by-election Mr Mortimer and the party’s Danielle Mason and Cabel Pell got the next highest combined total with 1,588.

Green candidates John Cossham, Nicola Normandale and Candi Spillard collectively won 988 votes.

Thursday’s Conservative candidate Mr Holden and the party’s Liping Hu and Ivan Zhou won 500 votes in total.

The turn out in Hull Road was 32.1 per cent compared to 39.1 per cent for the city overall.