Postponement request denied

Slough: Council accused of ‘running’ from ballot box

The Government has refused Slough Borough Council’s request to postpone the planned local elections in May.

Slough is set to hold ‘all-out’ elections in May 2023 which will see every seat contested rather than the current system where a third of the council is elected each year.

But the Labour-run local authority faced accusations of ‘running away’ from the ballot box after it asked Government to postpone upcoming elections in May where a third of seats were still due to be up for grabs.

During a full council meeting on Thursday, January 27, the council announced its bid to push back this year’s vote had been refused by the Department for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities.

A letter from Tory MP Kemi Badenoch said: “The Slough electorate will be anticipating May 2022 as an opportunity to hold their representatives accountable at the ballot box and I consider it would not be appropriate for the government to impede that.”

Labour councillor Rob Anderson (Lab, Britwell and Northborough) previously said that it would be ‘illogical’ to host an election in May which would have no impact on who runs the council and cost £187,000 to organise.

But opposition parties argued that the electorate should be allowed to have their say at the ballot box this year following the financial crisis the council has been in over recent months.

Councillor Dexter Smith, leader of the Slough Conservatives, told the Express: “A lot of the money that an election costs has already been committed by the council this year.

“You can’t put a price on democracy and we are coming to the electorate with the news of how bad the situation is in Slough Borough Council, which is entirely different to what they were being told last year.”

He added: “The people need to have that opportunity to express their feelings at the ballot box.”