On the hottest day of 2025 so far, Kent’s voters have been leaving their homes in steady numbers to vote in today’s elections to Kent County Council.

Few are brave enough to predict the outcome, other than to echo the national feeling that the Conservatives may struggle when the counting starts tomorrow.

On the sprawling Shepway estate, the estimated population of 14,000 has seen many political stripes over the years.

This is the Maidstone South division, held by the outgoing Conservative Paul Cooper, but the future incumbent is far from certain.

In its heart, social housing provider, Golding Homes, is already starting a building project to replace old stock with new homes and better community facilities.

The scaffolding poles poking out from above the blue perimeter hoardings is evidence of rapid progress.

Young women push prams along the pavements while a tattooed man with his top off cracks open a Monster energy drink.

But the car park at Greenfields Community Primary School, where the polling station is situated, is pretty much deserted.

A few older folk saunter up to the doors, polling cards in hand.

The trees are coming into leaf and the air is sweet from spring blossoms.

It seems from a small sample here that the vote is thinly spread across the main parties with the Lib Dems tipped to do well, although there is thought to be a substantial latent Reform UK vote in these parts.

One chap, retired and aged 79, says quietly that he was turned off Labour by the winter fuel allowance changes and voted Reform UK.

Another, a Labour supporter of old, has just voted Conservative.

Two friends emerge - one supporting Reform and another for the Liberal Democrats.

Along the road to Langley, the A274 is choked with traffic, as usual, and new houses springing up like mushrooms everywhere.

The village hall is doing brisk trade and a former soldier, a Dubliner who served in the Royal Engineers, and his Liverpudlian wife have backed Labour.

This is Conservative Lottie Parfitt country, Maidstone Rural South. Supporters are unsure about her chances, with the Greens and Reform UK nibbling at her heels.

The porch of the ancient St Nicholas village church in Leeds, a couple miles down the road, is cool and calm as the temperature outside hits 23C by mid-morning. There is a trickle entering and leaving the polling station, certainly not a stream.

This has been Conservative Gary Cooke’s Maidstone South East seat for 16 years and is a Reform UK target.

As if to make the point, one man, on his way to work, has voted for Nigel Farage’s party.

Seven minutes drive away, at the Bearsted Women’s Institute hall - a polling station for as long anyone can remember is in Sir Paul Carter’s Maidstone Rural North division.

Sir Paul is probably the best-known councillor in the area, if not Kent, having been Conservative leader of KCC for 14 years until 2019.

The WI hall is the busiest yet, voters mainly arriving in couples, some on sticks, but all with cards in hand.

Locally, there is talk of a Green Party threat in the division, even in verdant, true-blue Bearsted.

This straw poll, albeit a tiny one, was carried out at four polling stations in four Maidstone divisions which were all stoutly Tory in 2021. Whether they remain so, is yet to be determined.

All will become clear tomorrow (May 2) when the results come flooding from all corners of Kent onto a big screen in the Darent Room at County Hall.

Don’t forgot to visit KentOnline throughout Friday for results from across the county.

Candidates standing in the areas visited:

MAIDSTONE SOUTH

BUTLER, Gary - Independent

CLARK, Brian Eugene - Liberal Democrats

CLEATOR, Maureen - Labour Party

POTTS, Benjamin Augustus - Green Party

ROTHERHAM, Darcy May - Conservative Party

THOMAS, Paul - Reform UK

MAIDSTONE RURAL SOUTH

BLACK, Brian - Reform UK

EAGLE, Derek Roy - Green Party

KHADKA, Dinesh - Liberal Democrats

PARFITT, Lottie - Conservative Party

SILKIN, Rory Lewis Frederick - Labour Party

MAIDSTONE SOUTH EAST

CHESSON, Richard George - Conservative Party

KEMKARAN, Linden Mary- Reform UK

NAGHI, David - Liberal Democrats

OLADIMEJI, Tim - Labour Party

RICHER, Caroline Anita - Green Party

RUSTEM, Lawrence - British Democrats

MAIDSTONE RURAL NORTH

CARTER, Paul Benedict Crossland - Conservative Party

DIXON, Spencer Anthony - Reform UK

ENGLISH, Clive Andrew - Liberal Democrats

SLAUGHTER, Ryan - Labour Party

THOMPSON, Stephen Roy - Green Party

TURNER, Sean David - Heritage Party - Freedom. Family. Nation.