Parish elections 2024

[listener]

Now that a new thread has been introduced for forthcoming parish council elections, it is timely to have a look ahead at the contests coming up next May.

All parish councils invariably have all-up elections in one year, encompassing all parish wards and all constituent parishes in a joint parish council. They generally serve for a term of four years, unless in a transitional period.

Parish council elections are set in the same year as the principal council elections, so the majority of parishes have been elected in the primary unitary county cycle (2021) and the primary district and unitary cycle (2023) and these will come up again in 2025 and 2027.

By and large, parishes in principal councils elected by thirds also have elections in the primary district and unitary cycle (2023), but some parishes have elections staggered in the other years, to coincide with district and unitary council ward elections not falling in the primary year. In recent years the Boundary Commission has tended to introduce three-member wards to principal councils elected by thirds, so wards have elections every year, but the Boundary Commission has not altered the cycle of parish elections across the three years.

So, 2024 will be a relatively quiet year for parish elections. Here is a summary of the elections coming up, with a mention of significant parishes. Most of these parishes were last contested in 2021, delayed from 2020 because of covid.

There are all-up elections in 8 principal councils, including Maidstone and Worcester, which are moving to all-up elections. Orders are in preparation to ensure that parish elections here are coterminous with the new election cycle, but it is not yet clear whether the term of existing parish councillors will be extended in parishes unaffected by boundary changes and not ordinarily falling due in 2024. Here is a summary of their contests -

• Rotherham (Met) – 28 parish councils, including Aston-with-Aughton, Brinsworth, Dinnington St. John’s and Maltby
• Dorset (Unitary County) – in transition from the first election in 2019 and to re-elect again in 2029 – 154 parish councils, including Bridport, Dorchester, Ferndown, Portland, Shaftesbury, Sherborne, Swanage, Wareham and Weymouth
• Bristol (Unitary) – 0 parish councils
• Warrington (Unitary) – 17 parish councils, including Birchwood, Great Sankey, Lymm and Poulton-with-Fernhead
• Gloucester (District) – only 1 parish council, Quedgeley
• Maidstone (District) – 35 parish councils, including 4 with boundary changes, Boughton Monchelsea, Boxley, Otham and Thurnham
• Stroud (District) – 50 parish councils, including Berkeley, Dursley, Nailsworth, Stonehouse, Stroud and Wotton-under-Edge
• Worcester (District) – 2 parish councils – Warndon (boundary changes) and St. Peter the Great County

There are elections by thirds or halves in 31 metropolitan districts (including Dudley and North Tyneside all-up with boundary changes), 15 unitary councils (including Wokingham all-up with boundary changes) and 54 shire districts (including 16 all-up with boundary changes, but no disturbance to the parish election cycle).

There are no parish council elections in any of the metropolitan districts in 2024 (apart from Rotherham above).

Of the 15 unitary councils, there are no parishes in Kingston upon Hull, Plymouth, Portsmouth, Reading, Southampton and Thurrock and no parish elections in 2024 in Hartlepool, North East Lincolnshire and Southend-on-Sea. This leaves parish elections in 6 unitary councils, as follows :-

• Blackburn with Darwen – 5 parish councils, including Darwen
• Halton – 5 parish councils
• Milton Keynes – 16 parish councils, including Bletchley and Fenny Stratford, Central Milton Keynes, Newport Pagnell, Olney and Stony Stratford
Peterborough - 9 parish councils, including Orton Longueville and Orton Waterville
• Swindon – 8 parish councils, including Central Swindon North
• Wokingham – 4 parish councils, including Finchampstead (boundary changes).

Of the 54 Shire Districts with elections by thirds or halves,

• 20 have no parishes – Broxbourne, Cambridge, Crawley, Exeter, Fareham, Gosport, Harlow, Hastings, Havant, Ipswich, Lincoln, Norwich, Nuneaton and Bedworth, Runnymede, Rushmoor, Stevenage, Tamworth, Watford, Woking and Worthing
• 14 have no parish council elections this year – Cannock Chase, Castle Point, Cheltenham, Elmbridge, Hyndburn, Mole Valley, Pendle, Preston, Redditch, Reigate and Banstead, Rossendale, St. Albans, Three Rivers and Welwyn Hatfield

The remaining 20 shire districts have parish council elections in 2024, as follows

• Adur – 3 parish councils, including Lancing
• Basildon – 6 parish councils, including Billericay
• Basingstoke and Deane – 12 parish councils, including Baughurst and Bramley
• Brentwood – 2 parish councils
• Burnley – 2 parish councils
• Cherwell – 13 parish copuncils, including Banbury
• Chorley – 6 parish councils, including Withnell
• Colchester – 4 parish councils, including Marks Tey
• Eastleigh – 3 parish councils – Bishopstoke, Botley and Hamble-le-Rice
• Epping Forest – 14 parish councils, including Buckhurst Hill, Chigwell (boundary changes), High Ongar and Loughton (boundary changes)
• Hart – 4 parish councils
• North Hertfordshire – 2 parish councils
• Oxford – 2 parish councils – Littlemore and Risinghurst & Sandhills
• Rochford – 3 parish councils, including Rayleigh
• Rugby – 13 parish councils
• Tandridge – 5 parish councils, including Caterham on the Hill, Caterham Valley and Warlingham
• Tunbridge Wells – 6 parish councils, including Hawkhurst
• West Lancashire – 4 parish councils, including Up Holland
• West Oxfordshire – 19 parish councils, including Woodstock
• Winchester – 5 parish councils

There is an anomalous situation in Cumbria, where the parish council election cycle has not yet been adjusted to become coterminous with the unitary council elections. The new unitary councils were elected in 2022 and all-up parish council elections were held in 2023, but in the former districts of Carlisle and South Lakeland, which had been under elections by thirds, the parish council elections were restricted to those falling due in 2023. Further parish elections will take place in 2024, viz.

• Cumberland (formerly Carlisle) – 6 parish councils, including Hayton and Wetheral
• Westmorland and Furness (formerly South Lakeland) – 28 parish councils, including Ulverston

Finally [as noted separately by Carolus], following a Community Governance Review by South Kesteven, the district will become completely parished, with the election of the new parish (town) council of Grantham, to serve for three years until 2027.

[swindonlad]

Swindon – it's Central Swindon North, not South this year. South was last year.

All Parishes will be, almost certainly, a 2 year term so they coincide with the all out Borough elections starting in 2026.

[listener]

Thanks - I have adjusted re Swindon.

Another council elected by thirds bites the dust!

[casualobserver]

There are six Parish Councils in Halton, not five: Hale, Halebank, Moore, Daresbury, Preston Brook and Sandymoor. But don't use Wikipedia to cherck this, as it says there are only four!

[listener]

There are indeed six parish councils in Halton, but as explained above, where the principal council has elections by thirds, the parish election cycle may be staggered across the three election years of the principal council. My post above seeks to identify exactly which parish councils are coming up in 2024.

In the case of Halton, Hale parish council was elected in 2022 and the remaining 5 fall due in 2024.

[peterl]

I will be doing profiles for Dorset's more interesting parishes on the Dorset Council thread. Ferndown is up, I also intend to do Bridport, Dorchester, Weymouth, Portland, Lyme Regis and Swanage. The rest are largely non-partisan.

[Harry Hayfield]

We have an answer to the long running situation on Llanrhystud Community Council (the Welsh version of parish councils) for the Haminiog ward. A by-election has been called for February 8th 2024 with nominations closing on January 12th at 4.00pm (meaning that this time ten or more letters were recieved by the County Council)

[carolus]

With all* the parish nominations up, a quick list of the councils that will party contested elections in May:

Adur: Lancing
Blackburn with Darwen: Darwen

Cherwell: Banbury

Dorset: Bridport, Ferndown, Dorchester, Swanage, Weymouth, Portland,

Epping Forest: Buckhurst Hill, Chigwell, Loughton
Rochford: Rayleigh
Rotherham: Brinsworth, Dinnington St John's, Maltby, Wentworth
South Kesteven: Grantham
Stroud: Stonehouse, Stroud
Tandridge: Caterham on the Hill, Caterham Valley, Warlingham, Whyteleafe
Warrington: Birchwood, Culcheth & Glazebury, Great Sankey, Lymm, Poulton with Fearnhead
Westmorland & Furness: Ulverston

EDIT:

Wyre Forest: Kidderminster

*Still waiting for Chorley, but I don't expect it to have any contested elections