Leading opposition councillors are concerned that Warwickshire County Council's 2025 elections will be delayed by plans to restructure into one big authority.

The government this week asked for expressions of interest from county councils to form unitary authorities, bringing all the services currently delivered by county, district and borough councils under one roof.

Leading officers and politicians from the county's five districts and boroughs have been summoned to Shire Hall for talks this week ahead of the January 10 deadline for counties to state their initial case. 

The new Labour government is keen to push through such plans across England and Wales but decisions on how quickly areas go are politically led with the issue high on the local agenda in recent years and the Conservative group in charge of the county known to be in favour as recently as 2021.

The big question is how quickly Warwickshire wants to go and whether that will push down the track the county elections scheduled for May 2025. 

Government permission 

A letter sent to chief executives and elected leaders of councils by the minister for local government and English devolution Jim McMahon MP says delaying elections by one year would be considered for areas "minded to join the Devolution Priority Programme" with reorganisation plans to be submitted by autumn 2025, or where reorganisation is needed to "unlock devolution" with plans in those circumstances to come forward by May 2025.

He adds: "This request must set out how postponing the election would enable the council to make progress with reorganisation and devolution in parallel on the Devolution Priority Programme, or would speed up reorganisation and enable the area to benefit from devolution as quickly as possible once new unitary structures are in place."

The government will then decide, based on applications from across England and Wales, which of the plans to take forward and how soon – Warwickshire may ask to be in the first tranche but get pushed back a year in favour of others.

'Two more years is too long'

If Warwickshire does go earlier, Green group leader Cllr Jonathan Chilvers highlighted how it would leave the current Conservative leadership in charge for two extra years with those elected in May 2026 spending 12 months as a 'shadow' council to the current county set-up and the new authority taking charge in April 2027.

"We absolutely will not support any request to delay elections in Warwickshire, which is the option on the table," said Cllr Chilvers, who also serves on the cabinet of Warwick District Council. 

"It is the government's decision whether or not to do that but it is not acceptable to us to even ask because it would mean the current county administration going on for at least six years rather than the normal four.

"That is a massive and exceptional democratic deficit. I don't know about residents but I am absolutely fed up with this Conservative administration wasting hundreds of millions of pounds on ill-thought-through road schemes and bridges to nowhere rather than focusing on infrastructure that actually makes a difference to people's lives. 

"Residents must have a say on that in May 2025 and I would be staggered if the Labour and Liberal Democrat groups didn't agree with that."

Liberal Democrat leader Cllr Jerry Roodhouse, who also serves on Rugby Borough Council, predicts "things will move extremely quickly" if the county is accepted in the first leg and feels there is a fair chance of that happening due to the county already having a devolution deal in place, no need to redraw county borders and its own police and fire authorities.

"It doesn't have to deal with anybody else to get it through," he said.

"If you're sat in an office in London and put all that together, you would probably lean towards pressing the button to go now.

"I'm told only 10-12 authorities will go first, then there will be another wave but that is down to the ministers concerned. 

Nevertheless, he admitted to being "a bit troubled by" the spectre of delayed elections.

"It may not be my preferred option, as a Liberal Democrat group we are not happy about that, but the pragmatic way of looking at it is that it is an easy one for them to push forward with," he concluded. 

Cllr Roodhouse indicated he was not minded to back postponement but that he would remain open minded about what could be achieved through negotiation. 

"We'd want an open and transparent process which is cross-party to develop any schemes going forward," he said.

"There would be an awful lot of work to be done, chief execs and officers from other authorities would have to be involved. In my view, we would need a cross-party political group as well."

'It's not up to us'

Labour leader Cllr Sarah Feeney stressed the matter would be decided by the government.

"If we are further down the queue, we might end up with elections anyway. For us, it is really unclear at the moment," she said. 

"Looking at other councils that transitioned, they held elections and had a year to build their structures and had a shadow year. 

"I can imagine a number of councils putting in expressions of interest, and as it is with every government they will come out with a list of what happens and when – I suspect it won't be us telling them what we will do and when, it will be more a case of government telling us where we are on the list and whether that means we have elections or won't.

"There is a part of me that would like to see county elections next year because we anticipate taking more seats, but ultimately we will go with whatever is best for residents."

Cllr Judy Falp is the lone independent voice at Shire Hall and believes elections will be held up. 

"Someone said a while back that they had heard the elections would be put back," she said.

"I think it will delay elections. Warwickshire has already expressed an interest so I think they will try to delay it.

"People should have the opportunity every four years to have their say. They are not going to have that this time." 

Leader Cllr Izzi Seccombe felt it would be inappropriate to comment prior to speaking to council staff. 

"We are conscious there are people working for all of the councils in Warwickshire and feel it is only fair that we talk to them first," she said