Will my council election be going ahead next year?

Local council elections in Lancashire are facing delays next year as ministers push on with plans to overhaul local government.

They include an end to the two-tier system of district and county councils in favour of new unitary authorities which would be directly responsible for all local services in their areas from 2028.

In a Commons statement, Local Government Minister Alison McGovern said several authorities asked for a postponement to the 2026 local elections after raising concerns about being able to run them while also preparing for the transition.

But any plan to delay has come under fire from opposition parties who have said such a move would be anti-democratic.

In Lancashire, seven councils are due to hold elections in 2026, and they are Blackburn with Darwen, Burnley, Chorley, Hyndburn, Pendle, Preston and West Lancashire.

Four of these, Blackburn with Darwen, Chorley, Hyndburn, and Preston, are all Labour-controlled and have already written to the government to ask for a postponement.

Phil Riley, leader of Blackburn with Darwen, said a delay was needed to do local government reorganisation "properly".

He said: "We will be told what the decision is about the new layout of Lancashire and then we've got to prepare for elections for the new authority, so that that can take place early in May in 2027."

The government has written to all the councils affected, with some now against a delay.

In West Lancashire the Labour leader Yvonne Gagen said any decision to postpone should be "a government one, not a council one, so we won't be putting in any request".

Liberal Democrat leader of Pendle Council, David Whipp said: "I believe democracy is fundamental to our society, councillors must be accountable, and accountability is through the ballot box - cancelling elections erodes trust."

A special council meeting will take place in January for Pendle to decide what it wants to do, but Whipp said: "Liberal councillors will be arguing strongly for next May's elections to go ahead."

The Independent leader of Burnley council, Afrasiab Anwar has previously told the BBC he would like the elections to go ahead.

The Electoral Commission has also raised concerns about any postponement.

It oversees elections in the UK and said it did not think "capacity constraints are a legitimate reason for delaying long-planned elections".

Vijay Rangarajan, the watchdog's chief executive, said there was also "a clear conflict of interest in asking existing councils to decide how long it will be before they are answerable to voters".

Delays to elections risk "affecting the legitimacy of local decision-making," he added.

All seven councils are up by a third in 2026, which means that a third of councillors are up for election every year over a four year cycle, with one year without an election.

If the elections are postponed, it will mean some councillors will serve longer than their initial four years.

Also, because these are not all out elections, there may not be a change in who is in control at some of these councils if voting were to go ahead.

Any council looking to postpone needs to write to the government by 15 January.

McGovern has said: "Should a council say that they have no reason to delay their elections, there will be no delay.

"If a council voices genuine concerns, we will take these issues seriously and would be minded to grant a delay in those areas."

If they are allowed to postpone then councillors will serve more time, up to about two years, until the new authorities are formed.

Blackpool, Fylde, Lancaster, Ribble Valley, Rossendale, South Ribble and Wyre were due to hold all out elections in 2027, but they will not be going ahead due to the shake-up.

While Lancashire County Council has no elections in 2026 or 2027.

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