In the ongoing debate about devolution and the postponement of local elections this May, Hampshire County Council’s Conservative leader has responded to a bid from his party’s national leader Kemi Badenoche for a u-turn on the decision to postpone this May’s elections.
He said postponing the county council elections provides “stability, time and capacity” to get devolution right.
Badenoch: Cancelling elections “entirely wrong”
Ms Badenoch has launched a formal bid to keep local elections scheduled for this May, as her shadow business secretary warned cancelling them was “entirely wrong”.
Local government minister Jim McMahon laid an order last week to postpone elections in nine council areas – across East Sussex, West Sussex, Essex and Thurrock, Hampshire and the Isle of Wight, Norfolk, Suffolk and Surrey.
The early-day motion called for the order to be “annulled”, initially backed by five other Conservative MPs.
MP Kevin Hollinrake, who backed the Conservative leader’s motion, said there had been “no attempt to gather consensus” in areas where elections were cancelled.
Adams-King: “I hope most residents recognise it’s necessary”
Leader of Hampshire Conservatives, Councillor Nick Adams-King (pictured above), said that while “no one likes to postpone elections” all the constituent councils, and “I hope most residents”, recognise it’s necessary.
That way, it can provide “the stability and, most importantly, the time and capacity to enable us to focus on the vital task of getting devolution right”.
Strategic Partnership
Delivering devolution will involve nine policy areas, ranging from economic development to skills and training, climate change and nature strategy to public transport, highways infrastructure and strategic planning.
Alongside these areas are 58 different work streams with complex tasks to deliver the proposed combined authority for the region – this in addition to the need to consult, negotiate, obtain parliamentary assent and create the new body ready for the election of a mayor in May 2026.
Delivering the best possible outcome
Councillor Adams-King said that despite understanding “why our party leadership might feel the need to oppose the proposal from a point of principle”, his job is “to deliver the best possible outcome for the people of Hampshire”.
“Consequently, I believe we are better to postpone elections to ensure we deliver a devolution deal which benefits our residents, particularly those who live in our most deprived neighbourhoods where we will now be able to focus our efforts; our businesses who can expect a much wider strategic approach to economic development to deliver growth for our region and our public services who will see greater powers, and funding, devolved from Westminster to our county.”
This article is from the BBC’s LDRS (Local Democracy Reporter Service) scheme, which News OnTheWight is taking part in. Some alterations and additions may have been made by OnTheWight. Ed
