How council election changes in Lancashire will affect you
Government reorganisation to replace existing councils with a new unitary model
After local elections that were due to take place in various parts of Lancashire this year were called off by the government, the Local Democracy Reporting Service explains all you need to know about what is happening in each area – and when voting will now take place.
Where have local elections been cancelled in Lancashire in 2026?
The council areas of Blackburn with Darwen, Burnley, Chorley, Hyndburn, Preston and West Lancashire.
Where are local elections still taking place in Lancashire in 2026?
Pendle.
What about the rest of Lancashire?
No elections were scheduled this year in the Blackpool, Fylde, Lancaster, Ribble Valley, Rossendale, South Ribble and Wyre council areas, nor for Lancashire County Council – so none of those authorities have been affected by the cancellations.
Why have local elections been cancelled in some parts of Lancashire?
The government has ordered the biggest council shake-up in England for more than 50 years, which will lead to the abolition of all 15 main local authorities in Lancashire. They will each cease to exist on 31st March, 2028, after which a handful of new councils – covering large swathes of the county – will replace them as part of a process known as local government reorganisation (LGR).
That means the elections that were due to take place for the existing authorities in 2026 would have been the last ever electoral contests for those councils.
Late last year, the government gave any council with an election scheduled for this May – and whose days were numbered because of the forthcoming changes – the chance to request what it described as the “postponement” of the polls. They invited the authorities to outline any concerns they had about their capacity both to stage elections and carry out the work needed for LGR.
Requests were submitted in relation to all seven Lancashire councils with elections due in May 2026, against the backdrop of varying degrees of local political controversy.
In the cases of Blackburn with Darwen, Burnley, Chorley, Hyndburn, Pendle and Preston, submissions were made on behalf of the authorities themselves after majority or unanimous votes of their full councils or cabinets. However, in West Lancashire, the call came from the ruling Labour group alone, as no council or cabinet vote was held.
The government agreed to all of the requests it received from Lancashire except that made by Pendle – which is why elections are currently still scheduled to go ahead there.
What happens in areas where elections have been called off?
The polls that were due to take place would have elected councillors for a third of the total seats on each authority – one in each ward. The councillors whose seats were up for grabs were last elected in 2022 for what should have been four-year terms.
In the areas where elections have now been scrapped, those representatives will now remain in post almost two years longer than they would have done – until the abolition of the councils on which they sit at the end of March 2028.
However, any councillor that wishes to do so can still quit before that point, a move that would trigger a by-election – unless it occurred at a time near the end of their council’s existence.
When can Lancashire residents next vote in local elections?
The whole of Lancashire – not just residents in areas where the polls have been axed this year – will vote in May 2027 to determine the political make-up of the new replacement council for their part of the county. Those new bodies will then operate in so-called ‘shadow’ form for the following 11 months.
No elections that would otherwise have been scheduled in May 2027 for any existing councils will take place.
The government intends the newly-formed ‘unitary’ councils to hold all-out elections for every seat once every four years. That means the next polls after the shadow elections will be held in 2032 if, as expected, the councillors’ terms of office are deemed to begin once their authorities formally come into being in 2028.
How will I know what new council area I am in?
Five different suggestions have been put forward by Lancashire’s existing local authorities about the size and shape of the councils that should replace them, which would see multiple existing districts merged. Each of the proposals would result in a different set of new council configurations.
The government is set to choose its two preferred options in the coming weeks, which will then be put to a public consultation.
Ministers are expected to make a final decision on the new-look local government map for Lancashire this summer.
How will the new councils be different?
As well as covering much larger areas than the authorities they replace – with the exception of the current county council – the new organisations will be responsible for delivering all local authority services in their patch.
The purpose of LGR is to replace the current ‘two-tier’ system that exists in places like Lancashire – under which responsibilities are largely split between the county council and the 12 district authorities in Burnley, Chorley, Fylde, Hyndburn, Lancaster, Pendle, Preston, Ribble Valley, Rossendale, South Ribble, West Lancashire and Wyre – with a standalone model like that which already operates in Blackpool and Blackburn with Darwen. The government says the new set-up will be more cost effective.