Cambridgeshire County Council elections will go ahead this May

Cambridgeshire County Council will hold elections as scheduled in May despite the government’s plans for the devolution of local authorities.

May elections in nine council areas - including Suffolk and Norfolk - have been postponed for one year amid the reorganisation of local government in England.

Deputy Prime Minister Angela Rayner announced yesterday (Wednesday) that she has also invited all 21 two-tier areas – which have both county and district councils – to submit proposals to reorganise themselves into single “unitary” authorities.

Dr Stephen Moir, the county returning officer and chief executive of the council, said: “Cambridgeshire County Council is not part of the government’s devolution priority programme and it is important that registered voters across Fenland, Huntingdonshire, East Cambridgeshire, Cambridge city and South Cambridgeshire are able to exercise their democratic rights this year.

“I would encourage everyone who is registered to vote to take part in the forthcoming county council elections, further details about which will be published in the coming weeks.”

Elections for all 61 county councillors across Cambridgeshire’s 59 electoral divisions will take place on Thursday, 1 May.

The last full council elections were held in May 2021 and will again coincide this year with the election of the Cambridgeshire and Peterborough Combined Authority mayor.

The nine affected areas are East Sussex, West Sussex, Essex, Thurrock, Hampshire, the Isle of Wight, Norfolk, Suffolk and Surrey.

Announcing the delay to elections, the Deputy Prime Minister told the Commons: “The government’s starting point is for all elections to go ahead unless there’s a strong justification for postponement, and the bar is high, and rightly so.

“I am only agreeing to half of the requests that were made. After careful consideration, I have only agreed to postpone elections in places where this is central to our manifesto promise to deliver devolution.

“We’re not in the business of holding elections to bodies that won’t exist and where we don’t know what will replace them. This would be an expensive and irresponsible waste of taxpayers’ money, and any party calling for these elections to go ahead must explain how this waste would be justifiable.”