Do you care if your local Council cancels their/your local election in May?

[IwantToRetire]

Twenty-nine councils have requested a delay to their local elections which are due to take place in May. Of these, 21 are led by Labour, four are Conservative, two are Liberal, one is Green, and one is Independent.

It comes as Labour’s plans to scrap two-tier authorities and merge them into single unitary councils by 2028 are implemented.

The councils said a lack of resources needed to deliver local government reorganisation (LGR), and the cost of holding elections has led to the need for a delay.

The councils that have asked for a delay:

• Basildon Borough Council (Labour)
• Blackburn with Darwen Council (Labour)
• Burnley Borough Council (Burnley Independent Group)
• Cannock Chase District Council (Labour)
• Cheltenham Borough Council (Lib Dem)
• Chorley Borough Council (Labour)
• City of Lincoln Council (Labour)
• Crawley Borough Council (Labour)
• East Sussex County Council (Tory)
• Exeter City Council (Labour)
• Harlow District Council (Tory)
• Hastings Borough Council (Green)
• Hyndburn Borough Council (Labour)
• Ipswich Borough Council (Labour)
• Norwich City Council (Labour)
• Pendle Borough Council (Lib Dem)
• Peterborough City Council (Labour)
• Preston City Council (Labour)
• Redditch Borough Council (Labour)
• Rugby Borough Council (Labour)
• Stevenage Borough Council (Labour)
• Tamworth Borough Council (Labour)
• Thurrock Council (Labour)
• Welwyn Hatfield Borough Council (Labour)
• West Lancashire Borough Council (Labour)
• West Sussex County Council (Tory)
• Worthing Borough Council (Labour)

Or maybe you think local councils / councillors aren't that relevant or important?

Full article https://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/politics/local-elections-delay-councils-list-reform-b2902417.html

District councils are pointless IMHO, there Is usually a borough council and. Parish councils, as well as city and county councils, whose jurisdictions all bump in to each other, and they commonly engage in territory wars.

Local councils/councillors are extremely important and relevant

however, nearly every first tier local authority is also skint overwhelmed with social care and SEND. A lot of second tier ones are also struggling financially

local elections are very expensive to run but we need them

I don't know what the answer is

Given how low the turn out is for local elections I wonder if they worth holding, but whilst we have them I would like the chance to vote, and I wouldn't be happy if it was cancelled.

I wonder if it's not just direct funding, but human infrastructure? It takes people to do these things, and ideally people with some experience. Two big projects that require a lot of organisation might be beyond organisations that are already running with too few people.

I know I’m supposed to be up in arms over the cancelling of democracy, but I don’t really care. And I’m someone who always votes in them.
Our council is one that is having to change, and there is a proposed new council area but this spring and summer (right over the May elections) is when they’re proposing to do local engagement and consultation. It would seem slightly pointless to have an election then I think.

Although my council is not one that has asked for a delay anyway.

No, I don't care.

Because I work for an LA that went through this same process a couple of years ago. Going from six borough and one unitary into two unitaries, and therefore I understand that this isn't some conspiracy theory to keep Labour in power, but is about not adding additional complications into an already complicated process.

Our elections were cancelled for this reason and the Tories were in charge and no one battered an eyelid....

I'm not thinking its a conspiracy.

More the usual cock up.

How come that the period on consultation was organised to overlap with what is the well in advance notice of the date of the next local elections.

Does anyone know what the date is that the restructuring should be completed by and how long after that elections will be held?

But some councils elect a third of their councillors every year for three years (and then have a year off), some elect half their councillors every 2 years, some elect all their councillors every four years. I don’t see how you could plan any changes for when no affected council is having elections.

Whether the changes are a good thing I’ve no idea. I don’t know enough about it.

From the list it is obvious that the majority are held at the same time.

And if councils can afford to hold elections at a shorter period then they presumably aren't the ones worried about costs.

So although not necessaily totally fair, in a situation like this you would take into account the time when most are holding elections.

It seems the most bizarre bit of planning.

No, better not to waste money until things are more stable. Complete u turns cost billions. All money that could have been spent resolving the countless issues we have. Parents and children living in hotel rooms for one.

Not uniform but expect elections for new unitary councils will be 2028.

So currentl councillors get a 2 year extention. Might be okay to live with in some areas, but suspect in other areas it wont be.

It is an abuse of due process and an abomination. Without democracy we have nothing.

Luckily our council is not on the list. As the leader of the council is paying no attention to the wishes of the residents about which area we want to be integrated with (our MP has spoken in the HoC about this), hopefully we will be able to vote them out and have someone who cares about the area, even if it's for only 2 years.

Absolutely! There's lots of money for things they want to do even though the country is skint.
Labour will loose these seats and they can't allow it to happen.

Given the cost, it makes sense to me. I'm in Peterborough. We're due 2 by-elections anyway.

Yes, the only power we have over poorly preforming counsellors is not re-electing them.

This is all about keeping Reform out not saving money.

Elections have transaction costs in time, money and effort. Local government is broke. There is really no point organising and funding these only to start all over again with the new system.

Yes I do. Ours are conservative led and a mess. Our elections were already cancelled last year it's not acceptable to cancel them again imo.

They hire in additional staff to run elections. Having said that, they do hire in a lot of council staff, so tgey get paid twice!

In my area a lot of the people who are at voting stations and doing the counting are volunteers. Or used to be. Maybe they dont allow this any more.

The Electoral Commission page isn't clear although has links to applying to do this work.

No. I don’t care at all.

(They’re all hopeless) .

I work in local government and can honestly say that who you elect as your local councillor makes not a blind bit of difference to how it all works and the decisions that are made. The democratic element is all show. They do what the officers recommend 99% of the time and pick the 1% of trendy issues to claim success about.

I realised this 15 or so years ago when I was a minion sitting in a meeting about agreeing a very large multi billion contract. When asked how he would consult with councillors on reducing frequency of bin collections due to the political sensitivity of the issue the contractor programme manager laughed and said by the time it gets to them it will be too late to say no, and saving money was all we needed to be concerned with and we all in that room got to decide.

Waste of time, delay it, don't delay it. Makes no difference.

Yes I care. The wheels of democracy need to keep turning. It’s a fundamental basis of our society. I can see the appeal of cost pressures as an excuse for cancelling these elections- sounds v feasible - but I honestly think it’s because labour doesn’t want a trouncing.

Its always been paid where we are