Demands made for council elections to go ahead

Senior councillors have said they want guarantees that elections will go ahead next year, despite the postponement of a vote for a new mayor.

The government has delayed mayoral polls in four areas – including Norfolk and Suffolk – until 2028.

Group leaders at Norfolk County Council said they wanted clarity on whether next May's elections for the authority would still be held after they were postponed earlier this year.

Last week, Devolution Minister Miatta Fahnbulleh said elections would take place, although the government would have "a conversation" with councils if they faced "extenuating circumstances".

Kay Mason Billig, the Conservative council leader, said she believed the government was "hedging its bets".

The decision to postpone some county council elections this year was controversial. Ministers said the move was necessary to put them off for 12 months so local government could be reorganised.

Opponents said it was anti-democratic, but in January Norfolk County Council voted in favour of it.

The idea was that elections would take place at the same as the vote for a mayor of Norfolk and Suffolk instead. However, the government's decision to knock back the mayoral vote – so more time can be spent on reorganising local councils – has raised doubts.

Mason Billig told a council meeting on Wednesday she was still waiting for the government "to confirm that we were having county elections".

Conservative Bill Borrett – who fell out with his leader in a row over postponing this year's vote – called the situation "a shambles".

So did Liberal Democrat group leader Brian Watkins.

"I hope now, if we're not going to get the mayoral elections, that we will at least get the county council elections and the people will be able to deliver their verdict," Watkins said.

Labour's Steve Morphew admitted he was "not happy" and "a bit embarrassed".

"I think what we've had over the last few days is an untimely, unnecessary and unwelcome fog of partial information," he added.

The Green's Catherine Rowett – whose group opposed postponing this year's elections – argued it had been foolish to try to shake-up local government so quickly.

"It was always too short a timetable, it was always going to be chaotic and difficult to manage," she said.

And Reform UK's Julian Kirk told Mason Billig she should "demand our elections go ahead" at a meeting she is due to have with a government minister.

Earlier this year, Kirk quit the Tories and resigned from his council seat in protest at the elections being called off, winning it back in a by-election for Reform.

The BBC asked the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government if Norfolk County Council's elections would take place in 2026.

It referred back to comments made by Fahnbulleh, who told the House of Commons the government's plan was "to crack on with local elections".

However, she also said that "if there were extenuating circumstances on the ground, in particular councils, we will have that conversation with them" before adding that "we are as up for elections as anyone else".

Follow Norfolk news on BBC Sounds, Facebook, Instagram and X.