Councillors ‘understand’ need to cancel local elections once again but question if they could have been held in autumn

The May local elections have been suspended for 12 months

Residents were set to go to the polling booths on May 7 to vote for councillors for the new unitary authority councils that are due to launch in April next year. They would also have voted for the Police and Crime Commissioner, and for local parish and town councils.

The decision to cancel the vote until next May came 24 hours after the Electoral Commission had written to the government advising the elections were suspended due to the coronavirus outbreak. It recommended however that the elections only be postponed until autumn, and it is that outcome that Labour leader Councillor Danielle Stone would have liked to have seen.

She said: “I understand the need for caution around health and the virus, but I think I would expect it to be postponed until October when the peak has passed.”

It is the second successive year that Northampton residents will have gone without a council vote, with last year’s being cancelled by the government due to the impending council reorganisation.

Councillor Stone added: “We have been living with uncertainty for a long time and it’s going to further demotivate people to engage with the process. For other councils it might not be a big deal, but for people in Northamptonshire they won’t have had the opportunity to vote in six years.”

The Conservative leader of Northampton Borough Council, Jonathan Nunn, also regretted that the decision had to be made, saying: “If it was a normal council you would just extend it, but everything in life just seems a little more complicated in Northampton at the moment.

“The Structural Change Order [the legislation creating the new unitary authorities] included details about elections for shadow councillors, and I guess all that is going to have to be revised. There’s quite a lot to sort out.”

Liberal Democrat leader Councillor Sally Beardsworth added: “I was not surprised, especially if this virus keeps going the way it is. I’m just surprised that they have done it for the whole year straight away and I thought they may be able to review it in the autumn.”