Debate over Exeter and Plymouth elections taking place

Opportunity to discuss whether elections should be postponed

A debate will now be held over whether to postpone Exeter’s planned elections in May as pressure grows for the poll to occur.

Both of the Devon councils with local elections scheduled for this year – Plymouth and Exeter – were among those invited by the government to postpone them.

Local government minister Alison McGovern wrote to 64 councils in December stating that Westminster had been contacted by several councils that had raised concerns about their ability to run elections amid the ongoing process of local government reorganisation.

That process will see two-tier areas, such as Devon, where both county councils and district councils operate in the same geographic area, changed to unitary councils that will oversee all services in their areas.

Elections for the new unitary councils when they are formed are pencilled in for 2027, and are expected to begin operating in 2028.

Plymouth rapidly confirmed it would honour the planned elections there before the Christmas break, but Exeter was initially silent.

Pressure has been mounting on the council, from within and from other councils, to stick to the election timetable.

Exeter is scheduled to hold elections for 13 of its 39 seats on Thursday 7 May, but that is in the balance ahead of the city council debate.

Councillor Diana Moore (Green Party, St David’s) submitted a motion calling for the issue to be debated by all the city’s councillors, and has also questioned the rationale behind the government’s invitation to councils to postpone the polls.

“With all the competing bids in Devon, we haven’t even been told by government what a new council will look like,” she said.

“Elsewhere, we have seen shambolic delays with Labour’s local government reorganisation plans, so we cannot trust Labour to deliver an agreed new structure for Exeter any time soon.

“This means local people should have their say in May on who represents them in their wards and how the council is run in the meantime.

“The council and democracy is not on hold while we wait to see what happens with reorganisation.”

Exeter’s councillors will meet on Tuesday 13 January to debate whether the elections should be held.

Councils have to tell the government by 15 January if they want to postpone their scheduled polls.