Essex County Council’s Conservative leader defends moves to cancel elections

The Conservative leader of Essex County Council (ECC) has urged residents to look at the benefits of devolution amid concerns about plans to delay the election scheduled for May.

This week, the three ‘upper tier’ councils in Essex – the county council and the two unitary authorities, Southend-on-Sea City Council and Thurrock Council – will debate whether to join the Government’s priority programme for devolution and local government reorganisation.

ECC’s session on Friday (January 10) will also debate whether to ask permission to delay its county council elections on Thursday May 1.

Critics argue that under plans to postpone the poll, the Tory administration could be in charge of ECC for up to seven years without facing the electorate – three years longer than normal convention dictates.

However, the council’s leader, Cllr Kevin Bentley, has asked people to look at the benefits devolution would bring.

He said delaying May’s elections would be best as going ahead with them would compromise the ability to develop the proposals in a cross-party way and to engage the public.

It has also set an exacting timescale, with elections for the Mayor of Essex happening in spring 2026.

Devolution could mean Essex getting more money and powers from central government, and a directly elected mayor to direct investment in areas like transport, skills and the economy.

Local government reorganisation would mean doing away with the current two-tier council structures in favour of a smaller number of new unitary all-purpose councils.

Cllr Bentley said: “We must not turn this debate into a political football, with the short-term political gains for the few outweighing the long-term wider gains for the many – and by the many, I mean Essex’s residents and businesses.

“Holding an election during the process of developing these proposals would compromise our ability to do that in a cross-party way and to engage the public in our developing thinking.

“We will be setting ourselves up for the future in the best way possible, and to do this, we need consistent, steady and experienced council leadership.

“Elections on top of this, at no little expense to a body that will in all likelihood cease to exist within two or three years of an election, would all but ensure we could not deliver to the Government’s exacting timeline.

“In short, holding elections becomes a key risk in the process.

“While this is new to Essex, other parts of the country have had their elections delayed until new structures were agreed and in place.

“Of course, people will have their opinions and have the right to have their say, and as public bodies, it is right that we should listen to all viewpoints on devolution, reorganisation and the elections question.

“But as politicians, we are ambitious for our place and people. Devolution is the biggest chance we will get to take control, to take bold decisions and rethink our system so that it actually works.”

Uttlesford District Council – one of 12 district and borough councils in Essex – was also holding an extraordinary meeting on the issue on Wednesday (Jan 8).