More than 20 candidates are preparing to do battle at the polls in the Keighley area for places on Bradford Council.

Across the district, 127 hopefuls will be contesting the 30 seats available at City Hall.

In Bingley Rural, which includes Cullingworth and Denholme, Conservative Baroness Margaret Eaton is defending the seat she has held for more than two decades.

Craven ward, which takes in Steeton and Silsden, will see former Tory Adrian Naylor standing as an independent. The sitting councillor left the Conservatives last month after failing to win re-selection through the local party association to defend the seat.

In Keighley Central, Tory Zafar Ali, who lost his place on the Council a year ago, will be striving to return at the expense of sitting Labour councillor Khadim Hussain. And former Labour councillor Malcolm Slater will attempt to win back the Keighley East seat from Tory Dorothy Clamp.

It will be a three-way fight in Keighley West, where there is a vacant seat due to the resignation of Robert Payne in December after he was convicted of cruelty to four cats.

In the Worth Valley, Conservative Russell Brown will defend his seat.

Elsewhere in the Bradford district, key figures fighting for their seats include council leader Ian Greenwood (Little Horton); Councillor David Green, the authority’s executive member for regeneration, economy and sustainability (Wibsey); Councillor Andrew Thornton, executive member with responsibility for environment and sport (Royds); deputy leader of the Liberal Democrats, Councillor Riaz Ahmed (Bradford Moor) and Green Party group leader Councillor Martin Love (Shipley).

Former Keighley MP Ann Cryer, who retired from Parliament in 2010, is standing for Labour in Ilkley.

The Respect Party, riding high after leader George Galloway’s recent success in the Bradford West parliamentary by-election, is fielding candidates in 12 wards.

The political make-up of the Council currently stands at the ruling-Labour group on 44, the Conservatives with 27, Liberal Democrats on 11, four independents and three Green Party councillors. A third of the authority’s 90 seats are up for grabs.

Voters will go to the polls on Thursday, May 3.

In South Craven, two-way contests will take place between the Conservatives and Labour in two wards – Aire Valley with Lothersdale, and Cowling – for seats on Craven District Council.

Full candidate line-ups in local wards: Bradford Council - Bingley Rural: Robert Douglas Beckwith (Lab), Margaret Eaton (Con), Brian Newham (Green), Alan Sykes (Lib Dem) Craven: Val Carroll (Lab), Stuart Ebden (Lib Dem), Adrian Paul Naylor (Ind), Robert Minter Nicholls (Green), Andrew Charles Rowley (Con) Keighley Central: Zafar Ali (Con), Gerald Richard Brooksbank (Lib Dem), Khadim Hussain (Lab) Keighley East: Judith Brooksbank (Lib Dem), Dorothy Clamp (Con), Malcolm Slater (Lab) Keighley West: Adrian Stuart Farley (Lab), Brian Hudson (Con), Mike Wilkinson (Lib Dem) Worth Valley: Russell Brown (Con), Mark Bernard Curtis (Lab), Sharon Catherine Purvis (Lib Dem), Robert Edward Swindells (Green) Craven Council - Aire Valley with Lothersdale: Patricia Fairbank (Con), Paul Arthur Routledge (Lab) Cowling: Adrian Green (Con), Andrew Rankine (Lab)