With Cumbrians casting their vote today to elect the first Westmorland and Furness councillors when can people expect the results?

Polling stations opened at 7am today and will close at 10pm tonight.

Following close of polls at 10pm, the ballot boxes will be returned to the Returning Officer/Deputy Returning Officer overseeing each count venue.

LIVE UPDATES: Voters go to the polls to elect first Westmorland and Furness councillors

These will then be verified.

The verification process, which demonstrates that all ballot papers issued at polling stations and the valid postal votes received have been included in the count to produce a reconciled total.

Results will begin being counted at centres the following morning (May 6) from 9:30am.

There are 33 wards being contested in the Westmorland and Furness election-seven in Barrow, nine in Penrith and 17 in Kendal.

The verification and count for the Westmorland and Furness election are being held across three venues – Barrow Town Hall, Kendal Leisure Centre and Penrith Leisure Centre.

It is expected for the count to take three to four hours.