The pollsters are very confident about which way York will vote in the EU referendum

With just hours before the polls open, both sides seem to think there’s everything to play for.

The EU Referendum could go either way, and the Brexiteers and Remainers are working hard to persuade us why we should vote to stay in or quit the European Union.

Nationally, experts are saying it’s too close to call.

However in York it’s a different story – at least if you believe the opinion pollsters.

They say that the city has a definite leaning to vote to stay in Europe.

Rolling survey

International internet-based market research firm YouGov has been running a rolling survey of Britain’s various cities and counties.

There are 206 local education authorities in England, Scotland and Wales and it has large enough samples in 188 of them to report a position on the EU.

On its York survey, YouGov places the city as “relatively Europhile”, ranking it the 163rd most Eurosceptic area out of 188.

Further research by the pollsters suggests that less than a third of voters in the York Central constituency are definitely pro-Brexit, while no more than 37.5% in the York Outer constituency have said they’ll vote out.

Meanwhile tech firm Crowdpac has undertaken online research with half a million Brits.

That suggested Scotland and London will overwhelmingly vote to stay in, and the North, the East and the Midlands will definitely vote to get out.

But there are regional variations within that, and “other cities including Glasgow, Bristol, Sheffield, Brighton, York, Exeter and Cardiff all lean strongly toward staying in”.

Polls will open across York from 7am to 10pm on Thursday.

At 10pm the ballot boxes will be sealed and transported to the Energise leisure centre on Cornlands Road, where the count will take place.

Some time in the early hours of the morning York returning officer Steve Stewart will announce City of York’s vote in the EU Referendum.

Then the tallies will be totalled nationally to give us a verdict some time on Friday.