It's being billed as an early verdict on the first year of Sir Keir Starmer's Labour government, as well as a crucial sounding of our appetite for several political alternatives, but however you see the local elections, voting is now open until 10.00pm tonight as Gloucestershire, in line with polling across the country, decides on the makeup of our upper-tier authority.

With polling day coinciding with yet another upward swing on the barometer, polling station staff are breaking out the sun cream and ensuring they're hydrated for the 15-hour haul to 10pm tonight.

Reported early voting activity in many polling stations appeared to be defying any predictions of a low turnout. In Wotton-under-Edge, one administrator told Punchline-Gloucester.com: "It's always a long day but the lovely weather should encourage a good turnout and hopefully helps to ensure people exercise their democratic rights."

With no poll for district, city and borough councils, today's focus at the ballot box is purely on who runs Shire Hall and all seats are up for grabs as the culmination of the current administration's four-year tenure. A total of 55 seats are in fact now being contested, given an addition of two new divisions for this vote.

On the face of it, this poll is about how Shire Hall will spend its budget of more than £665m in the coming financial year, given its prime responsibility for the county's highways, education, environmental services, social care and libraries. While not carrying enough clout to be officially in charge (given a defection last May of one Tory councillor to the Green Party), the Conservatives have been running the authority for the last 20 years, with the makeup of the last poll in 2021 returning 28 Conservatives, 16 Lib Dems, four Labour Co-Operative councillors, four Green and one Labour.

The biggest vote share rise at that poll was for Green candidates and that party has fielded 11 candidates across all the divisions in what is seen as its stronghold around Stroud, where it co-runs the district council.

All parties have reasons to rehearse face-saving speeches once sufficient midnight oil has been burned to know the final tallies. 

For the Conservatives, fighting criticism that their leader Kemi Badenoch has not bitten large enough chunks out of Keir Starmer's government, a rear-guard defence will also need to be mounted against Nigel Farage's Reform UK who, as the cat among the political pigeons, are fielding candidates in all divisions and seeking to position themselves – as some psephologists have suggested – as a party with potential to overtake the official Westminster opposition.

Labour candidates seeking a seat at Shire Hall's table have meanwhile faced criticism over what much of the business community has judged to be an assault on its potential for growth: minimum wage increases, rises in employers' national insurance contributions and, in the wings, approaching employment rights legislation which, many key leaders say, will tie their hands in the quest to make profit and subsequently provide jobs.

The key ultimate question from today may well consequently be how effectively the Liberal Democrats and the Green Party are able to exploit the crossfire between the two main parties, while Reform waits for its first potential opportunity to build upon the Westminster breakthrough we saw last summer.

As with all elections, the only certainty is that there will be surprises, but ahead of whatever headlines Punchline brings you tomorrow, the only important news today is that this is a sunny opportunity to have your say. Don't waste it.

● Keep up with all the latest results to this election by following Punchline-Gloucester.com's free weekday news bulletin, which you can sign up to here. The website Who Can I Vote For? also carries full information on the candidates standing in the divisions across the county. Tap here for more.