Exeter votes tonight on whether to postpone May's local elections
Last week Devon County Council voted to support continuing with them
Councillors in Exeter will tonight have their say on whether to postpone May's local elections.
It's as plans are being considered to reduce the number of councils here - and hold elections for the new authorities when that's done instead.
Last week Devon County Councillors voted to support keeping the elections as planned.
The report, ahead of tonight's Exeter meeting, suggests "Postponing the local election in 2026 would release staff diverted to run and support the elections process and… financial resources which could be applied to focus on the work required to prepare for the transition to new unitary councils.”
Exeter's Green councillors have repeated a call on the Labour Council leader to 'honour a commitment made last year that the annual local elections would go ahead this May'.
Opposition leader on Exeter City Council, Councillor Diana Moore, said: “The report makes clear that Exeter City Council are looking to redirect the money earmarked for ensuring local elections to fund the design of a new local government structure which hasn’t even been agreed yet. Local government reorganisation comes at a cost, and the Labour government should provide councils with extra funding to ensure they can deliver on this.
“We’ve already got chaos in Devon with multiple reorganisation proposals and across the country. Labour’s local government reorganisation plans have also been beset with delays, so we cannot trust them to deliver an agreed new structure for Exeter anytime soon. It’s really important local people get to have their say in May to elect local councillors to ensure services aren’t neglected in the run up to setting up this new council”
Ahead of the meeting, Alison McGovern MP, Minister of State for Local Government and Homelessness, recently asked councils for their views on postponing elections if they consider it could release capacity for work on local government reorganisation.
She wrote: “I am therefore inviting you, by midnight on Thursday 15 January, to set out your views on the postponement of your local election and if you consider this could release essential capacity to deliver local government reorganisation in your area and so allow reorganisation to progress effectively.”
Devon County Council leader Julian Brazil said: "Cancelling elections is the main issue, but it’s triggered our feeling towards local government reorganisation and the whole devolution agenda.
“It appears to me that the government is descending into chaos.
“To me they’re doing it the wrong way around. They should be delaying local government reorganisation and not cancelling elections.”
Councillor Jacqi Hodgson, Leader of the Green and Independent Group at the county council, told councillors: “The residents of 64 authorities will be denied their rights to determine who represents them. This amounts to thousands of residents across England being disenfranchised of their democratic rights.
“Democracy can only be truly represented by allowing a fair election process.
“Changing the rule to suit the government’s whim undermines people’s faith in politics.
“These elections need to go ahead as scheduled and let the people speak.”