Council to ask government to postpone May elections

A council will ask the government to postpone its local elections after its leader said the authority needed "every ounce" of capacity ahead of planned reforms.

Ipswich Borough Council met on Wednesday night to discuss whether it should cancel its elections in May, which would see a third of its councillors up for election.

Councils across Suffolk have been undergoing a restructuring process and the current two-tier system of county, borough and district councils will be combined into a one-tier system of unitary bodies.

Neil MacDonald, the Labour leader of the council, said the authority had been discussing issues about capacity for months ahead of the restructuring.

"We will need every ounce of existing capacity and more to deliver this project," he told Wednesday's meeting.

Ian Fisher, the leader of the Conservative opposition group, told BBC Radio Suffolk he had been told prior to the meeting there were no issues with capacity and elections would go ahead.

"I'm on the working group for local government reorganisation and capacity has never been brought up as a potential issue," he explained.

"So I am bemused as to why we are stating that capacity is an issue when for the last previous few months we've been told that it won't be."

He added that if capacity issues were being discussed for months, they should have been made public before any talk around cancelling elections.

He accused Labour councillors of "escaping the electorate" in fear the seats up for election could be taken over by Reform UK.

If the government does cancel elections, the last for Ipswich would have been held in May 2024, reports the Local Democracy Reporting Service.

Martin Cook, council lead for resources, told the meeting that although cancelling elections did not sit well with any councillor, it was necessary to ensure the smooth transition into the new unitary authorities.

He described any Ipswich election in May as a "meaningless token" for councillors who would serve for a short amount of time and with no real power.

"Elections are important, democracy is important, but both of those things have to be responsive to change," he added.

Oliver Holmes, the leader of the Liberal Democrat Group, said although the government's timeline for the new unitary councils was unrealistic, cancelling the elections was not acceptable.

He described elections as a "fundament process" that should go ahead.

The government said it was looking for feedback on how postponement could free up essential resources for major reforms to councils.

A similar debate was held by Suffolk County Council on Monday, where all councillors were asked to vote on whether a delay in elections would release resources to focus on the reorganisation process.

The motion was passed with 39 votes for, 17 against and seven abstentions, and its cabinet then voted to respond to the government by 15 January.

It came as protesters gathered outside its headquarters before the meeting calling for elections to go ahead.

Minister for local government Alison McGovern told Parliament when she announced the potential delay to elections that "should a council say they have no reason to delay their elections, there will be no delay".

"If a council voices genuine concerns we'll take these issues seriously," she said.

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