County Council elections postponed again

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On 22nd January, the Government finally announced that it plans to postpone the County Council elections in Norfolk (and a number of other councils) again.

The Government says its decision is to allow the councils to focus on the work needed to set up new unitary councils that will cover Norfolk. Elections to the new unitary councils are expected to take place in May 2027, with the new councils expected to be up and running in April 2028.

However, it is not quite as clear-cut as that because there is a legal challenge to the postponement that will be heard on 21-22nd February. The postponement will only be confirmed if the courts agree the move is legal.

It’s a mess. A mess that is entirely of the government’s making.

  • The elections that were due last year should not have been postponed. There was no justification for it: the County Council will probably cease to exist in 2028 meaning the councillors elected for four years in 2021 will end up serving seven years
  • There’s still no definite timetable for Local Government Reform. I simply don’t understand how senior politicians and experienced civil servants (in the department responsible for local government) could have launched on this journey without any idea of the timetable. At this stage we still don’t know for sure when the new councils will be set up or if elections next year will go ahead
  • Councils should be able to do more than one thing at once. The idea that they need to cancel the elections to have the time prepare for LGR just doesn’t sound truthful

So, shouldn’t I (and my councillor colleagues) just resign and force a by-election? I have thought about this a lot as you can imagine. I have decided that, at this stage, it is not the right thing to do.

To start with, we still don’t know whether the elections will be postponed – that should be decided by the courts at the end of February. We also don’t know for certain whether by-elections will even be allowed if councillors do resign.

Most importantly, though, individual councillors resigning will not achieve what those calling for it want. This was a government decision – they won’t change their mind just because a few Norfolk councillors resign. It also won’t change how things are run at County Hall. The County Council is governed on party political lines. The Conservatives run the council with 52 of the 84 councillors. To change who runs the council, it would need at least ten Conservative councillors to resign. Councillors from other parties, or Independents like myself, resigning, would change nothing.

I work to hold the people running the County Council to account, and to make sure they don’t forget the needs of the people in the twelve parishes I represent. I will carry on doing that to the best of my ability.

That is my position for now. If it looks like my resignation would force a change of mind by the government, of course I will reconsider. If the elections for the new unitary councils do not go ahead next May, I will definitely resign – those new councillors will have the job of running the new councils and it is vital that people have a vote to elect them.