Local Elections Cancelled: No Poll in 2025
The government has cancelled the Norfolk County Council elections scheduled for May 2025 in order to focus on its planned streamlining of local government. The current Conservative administration elected in 2021 will therefore be granted at least an extra year in power, making decisions on local issues without a proper democratic mandate. New elections are planned for 2026, but it is believed that the reorganisation may be unlikely to have finished by then, so we could be looking at 2027 for the next vote on our local councillors; so potentially two years of suspended democracy.
Steff Aquarone, Lib Dem MP in North Norfolk said:
Steffan Aquarone MP
"Cancelling elections is extremely bad for public trust and should only be done when there is a compelling reason and clear plans for when they will be held instead. I fear these plans do not exist and I'm concerned it will be at least two years before people get to have their say about who will actually be running local services.”
Currently, Norwich is served both by the Norwich city council, which deals with parks, bins, and licensing, and the Norfolk county council, which deals with transport, social care, and education. The government is proposing to abolish both of these and replace them with single layer councils called unitary authorities. It isn’t yet clear which areas would be grouped together, but the media believes that Norfolk could be split into two or possibly three unitary authorities. The argument is that simplifying the system will make it easier to deal with local issues, and create a cost saving in administration. This isn’t necessarily a bad idea, but cancelling elections isn’t a prerequisite to reforming local government. Granting local councillors immunity from democratic accountability for months on end looks excessively cynical from a governing party haemorrhaging support.
The government has also announced that it will be instituting a mayor who will govern the entirety of Norfolk and Suffolk collectively, styled as the Mayor of Norfolk and Suffolk. This individual, once elected, would be responsible for regional development, and possibly transport. This clumsy proposal doesn’t seem to have much support from either side, and throws into question the sincerity Labour’s apparent desire to devolve power to local people.