Alan's Green Thoughts

In what will likely be the last ever county council elections in the UK- the plan towards unitarisation of remaining 2-tier county councils is still in motion - there was a historic sea change. This came, first and foremost, in the Conservative Party- the traditionally dominant party of the shire counties - losing control of every single council it won control of in 2021; even in wealthy Buckinghamshire they failed to obtain overall control, if only by 1 seat, and in Buckinghamshire they did not poll 50% or above in any division, not even Beaconsfield or Gerrards Cross & Denham where detached houses with seven-figure values are the norm rather than the exception, and the only other council where they remained the largest party was Northumberland. The post-COVID bounce they experienced in 2021 when Boris Johnson was Prime Minister more than unravelled - in County Durham they only held 1 seat and in some councils, even those where they have been in control more often than not since t...

  This year's local elections in England are particularly notable since due to upcoming local government reorganisation, these elections will, if said reorganisation proceeds as planned, will be the last ever county council elections under the current two-tier system of local government, as introduced by the Local Government Act 1972.  Since 2007, many former county councils have already been replaced by one or more unitary authorities, and the remaining two-tier councils of Cambridgeshire, Derbyshire, Devon, East Sussex, Essex, Gloucestershire, Hampshire, Hertfordshire, Kent, Lancashire, Leicestershire, Lincolnshire, Norfolk, Nottinghamshire, Oxfordshire, Staffordshire, Suffolk, Surrey, Warwickshire, West Sussex and Worcestershire are set to follow suit by 2028, and some extant unitary authorities will likely be absorbed in the process. In fact, county council elections in East Sussex, Essex, Hampshire, Norfolk, Suffolk, Surrey and West Sussex that were due to take place this...