According to BBC research, over a third of eligible councils in England have requested a postponement of their elections scheduled for May. Last month's directive from government ministers offered 63 local authorities the option to delay their polls due to concerns about the concurrent implementation of sweeping changes in local government structures. Among these, 23 councils have appealed for a postponement prior to the Thursday deadline, 34 have opted to proceed with elections as planned, and six councils have yet to announce their decisions. The government is expected to make a decision on these requests shortly.
While most councils seeking a delay are led by Labour, the list includes three Conservative-led councils and one led by the Liberal Democrats. In certain cases, councils are governed by coalitions or independents. These requests come in the wake of the government's plan to replace the two-tier district and county council system with 'unitary' councils responsible for comprehensive service delivery in their areas. This reform means that some councils slated for elections in 2023 may be disbanded for unitary councils by 2027 or 2028, potentially reducing the term of office for elected councillors to just one year.
The BBC reached out to the 63 councils eligible to request a delay in their May elections. East and West Sussex County Councils, Suffolk County Council, Exeter City Council, Preston City Council, Norwich City Council, Ipswich Borough Council, and Peterborough City Council are among those seeking postponements. Smaller councils such as Cheltenham, Hastings, Nuneaton and Bedworth, Ipswich, and Redditch Borough Councils have also requested delays.
Local Government Secretary Steve Reed, writing for The Times, has characterized the governmentâs reorganization as the most significant in a generation, promising to streamline operations by eliminating duplication. He argued that holding elections for councils destined for dissolution would waste resources needed for critical services. However, the decision to allow these delays has been met with criticism from both the Conservatives and the Liberal Democrats. Richard Tice, deputy leader of Reform UK, suggested that anxiety over potential election outcomes fueled the desire for delays.
Notably, the Conservative leaders of Suffolk, West Sussex, and East Sussex County Councils, alongside the Liberal Democrat-controlled Cheltenham Borough Council, have gone against their partiesâ official opposition to delays by requesting them. In Redditch, police were summoned to a council meeting where a contentious debate about election postponement took place. The leader of Essex County Council, despite acknowledging pressure on council systems due to the restructuring, has deferred the ultimate decision on election postponement to the government, refraining from issuing a formal delay request.