UKIP bosses are “confident” they will claim their first Great Yarmouth Borough Council seat this year.
The Eurosceptic party is fielding candidates in all 13 seats going to the polls in May.
Hopefuls for the party include a former chairman of Greater Yarmouth Tourist Authority and a politician who defected from the Conservatives
While no UKIP candidates succeeded in the 2012 borough elections, five of the borough’s nine county council divisions went purple in 2013.
And the results of this year’s borough council elections will be keenly watched, with a general election nearing.
Peter Fitzgerald, UKIP Great Yarmouth chairman, predicted: “We will build on UKIP’s county council triumphs by winning seats at the borough level.”
Prospective parliamentary candidate and a county councillor, Matthew Smith said he was “confident” the party would pick up seats and topple sitting councillors.
None of UKIP’s county councillors will be standing for the borough elections, and Mr Smith said this “highlights the depth” of support in the local party.
The list of UKIP candidates standing for the borough elections includes Malcolm Bird, a former chairman of Greater Yarmouth Tourist Authority.
Mr Bird, who will stand in Central and Northgate ward, is a hotelier in Great Yarmouth and is chairman of Great Yarmouth Residents’ Association.
Former Conservative councillor Tom Andrews defected to UKIP and will be standing in Caister South.
Recently retired prison officer Clayton Greene, of Fleggburgh, will challenge for East Flegg.
Jack Cutting, a retired Caister resident, will stand in Caister North after narrowly missing out in last year’s county elections.
Former prison officer Robert Connell and Great Yarmouth restaurant owner Katy Stenhouse will stand in Southtown and Cobholm, and Nelson wards respectively.
Shop owner Kay Grey, 46, of Gorleston, is standing in Gorleston ward and 43-year-old Carl Annison, who runs a Bradwell paving business, will be contesting the Bradwell South and Hopton ward.
Danny Chambers, 23, of Gorleston, will stand in Magdalen ward, Belton man Adrian Myers will stand in Lothingland and business manager Mike Monk, of Bradwell, will stand in Bradwell North.
Rachel Jones, 23, Great Yarmouth, will stand in Yarmouth North.
She is a part-time retail worker and has two children.
Tabby Rodwell, of Gorleston, is a part-time Tesco worker and student and she will stand in Claydon ward.
A recent survey by pollsters Survation claimed that UKIP was polling ahead of the Tories but behind Labour in the borough, which is seen as a keen reflector on the rest of the country.
The borough council holds elections of a third of its members each year.
It is divided into 17 electoral wards and there are 39 councillors representing the 17 wards.
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