Local elections in 2025 come ahead of big shake-up
Getty ImagesVoters on both sides of the River Tamar will get the chance to vote in local elections on 1 May. The vote comes ahead of a very big change - here is what you need to know.
Where are elections being held?
All the seats on Cornwall Council and Devon County Council are up for grabs.
There will also be elections to the Council of the Isles of Scilly and Cornwall's town and parish councils, leaving Torbay and Plymouth as the only election-free areas in the two counties.
Cornwall Council and Devon County Council are Conservative-controlled, but there is a big difference between the two.
The Tories have governed continuously in Devon since 2009, winning a comfortable majority at the last elections in 2021, but Cornwall Council has almost always been under no overall control.
What is the political landscape?
The Conservatives won a majority on Cornwall Council for the first time in 2021 but have since shrunk to being merely the largest group.
The Liberal Democrats are the traditional challengers on either side of the Tamar and have run both counties in the past. They will be buoyed by their success locally in last July's general election.
Labour currently has only a small group of councillors on each authority but also did very well in the region last July.
No Reform councillor has previously been elected to either council but activists will have high hopes following the party's substantial vote share in the region at the general election.
The Greens have just two councillors on Devon County Council and one in Cornwall but the party chalked up a record number of MPs nationally in July.
Mebyon Kernow is defending five seats on Cornwall Council, while the Independents are traditionally a force to be reckoned with west of the Tamar, currently holding 16 seats.
Which councils could be abolished?
There is a very big footnote to this set of elections.
Normally they are the biggest event in local government until the next elections four years later.
This time there is guaranteed to be a lot more upheaval before then.
These will be the last-ever elections to Devon County Council.
It and the county's district councils are expected to disappear by 2028, at the latest, as the administrative map of Devon is completely redrawn to create new unitary authorities.
What about devolution?
The government then wants to go further and group unitary councils together in large "strategic authorities" under an elected mayor.
Proposals from Devon to combine with Cornwall under a joint mayor have been rejected by Cornwall Council.
The existing Devon councils are now requesting a mayoral strategic authority for Devon alone – as a first step, at least – but the future of devolution on both sides of the Tamar remains an open question.
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