THIS YEAR’S Redditch Borough Council elections will go ahead in May after the Secretary of State withdrew his original decision to postpone 30 local polls across the country.
The Government said it had followed legal advice which had led to the decision.
The Secretary of State has now written to council leaders and key stakeholders to confirm this decision.
Members voted to cancel the local elections so the council could focus its time and resources on the Local Government Reorganisation.
The move would also have saved £192,000 worth of taxpayers’ money as those elected to the new-look Redditch Borough Council would only have sat for 12 to 18 months before the authority, along with the other district councils and Worcestershire County Council were disbanded for the new local government to take shape.
The controlling Labour Group came under fire from Reform UK and the Conservatives for ‘denying democracy’ and – prior to the meeting where the vote to cancel the election took place – a protest was held. That was attended by around 40 people.
Redditch Borough Council Leader Sharon Harvey said: “When we made the request to Government to postpone the elections we voiced serious capacity concerns relating to local government reorganisation. This was the right thing to do at the time.
“I welcome this latest commitment from Government to provide extra funding to support the council on this journey of local government reorganisation which is much needed to streamline and speed up decisions, improve services and empower our communities..
“I look forward to this administration continuing to deliver on the promises we made in our manifesto.”
The Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government (MHCLG) will take the necessary steps to revoke the secondary legislation in Parliament to ensure that all local elections will now go ahead in May 2026.
The government also confirmed today that up to £63million in new capacity funding will be made available to help local councils across the 21 reorganisation areas to best deliver local government re-organisation, building on the £7.6million provided for developing proposals last year.
