Scrapping vote avoids wasteful costs, says council

A council leader has said scrapping this year's elections will "avoid wasteful costs".

The government confirmed on Thursday that this year's polls in Stevenage and Welwyn Hatfield in Hertfordshire will be not be going ahead.

Councils in areas where local government is being streamlined, including Hertfordshire, were offered the chance to seek cancellation of their 2026 elections.

Richard Henry, the leader of Stevenage Borough Council, said the move would ensure staff were available to deal with the reorganisation.

Each area of Hertfordshire currently has two authorities providing different public services, and the government wants to create single all-purpose councils.

Some authorities had told the government it would be difficult to deal with reorganisation and elections at the same time.

Stevenage Borough, where Labour have control, and Welwyn Hatfield, which is run by a Labour and Liberal Democrat coalition, were the only two areas in Hertfordshire that requested cancellation.

The next planned elections in those areas will be to the new unitary authorities in 2027.

Richard Henry, the leader at Stevenage, said: "The delay of one year will mean we can make sure the necessary resources are available for reorganisation work and avoid wasteful costs from holding elections to a council that will be restructured soon, and for councillors elected only two years ago.

"This is the most significant modernisation of local government in 50 years and provides an opportunity to better serve our community into the future."

Liberal Democrats on the council voted against cancellation, and have now started the process of ripping up their joint administration agreement with Labour.

When speaking to the BBC on Thursday, some people living in Welwyn Garden City said they were unimpressed with the news.

Andreas Kaccouris said: "The fact that they've been cancelled - because obviously they're trying to amalgamate all three councils into one - I think is quite unfair without asking the people what they feel should happen."

Andreas Sekhala added: "It's kind of a shame because you should be able to vote and it's a constitutional right, but I guess things happen and events happen."

A resident who did not wish to be named said: "We should be able to vote for who we think should be in charge.

"But, when we do vote, they go back on their words and not a lot happens."

A few doors away, John Cook said the cancellation was "an appalling state of affairs".

"I think the Labour government are running scared from Reform," he explained.

"But perhaps more importantly, it's stifling democracy."

He believes this year's elections should go ahead because "we've got no guarantee that those elections with new councillors will occur next year".

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