ESSEX County Council elections are scheduled to take place on Thursday, 7 May 2026 – a year after they were postponed due to local government reorganisation – the council has confirmed reports the Local Democracy Reporter.

There had been consternation over the cancellation of elections in 2025, which Essex County Council said was needed to proceed more seamlessly towards an elected mayor system and a complete reorganisation of local government in Essex.

An election next year could mean that Essex County Council could see a change in administration before a new set of unitary authorities is formed in 2027.

Also scheduled to take place on the same day is the election of Essex’s first directly elected mayor – an individual who is set to receive funding from Westminster to implement policies around housing, infrastructure, transport, and adult training and skills.

The mayor will be in charge of a combined authority – ultimately to be made up of the unitary authorities that are set to replace Essex’s current 14 councils.

However, this seems to be contradicted by news coming out of Westminster.

A statement as part of documents in front of members ahead of the full council on December 9 said: “As members are aware, the 2025 County Council elections were postponed, and it is currently planned that the ordinary elections will take place in 2026. In May 2026, local elections in some Essex districts are also scheduled, and we anticipate that a mayoral election for the new Greater Essex combined county authority will also take place.

“The 2026 elections will take place on Thursday, May 7.”

A senior county council official had warned that if elections were to go ahead in 2026, “completely untested councillors” could be left in charge of complex reorganisation work.

Essex was one of nine councils where local elections were delayed by one year in May to allow for major reorganisations to take place.

As it stands, ‘shadow’ councillors will be elected for the new unitary authorities that will take over the roles currently operated by local councils and the county councils in May 2027. These shadow councillors will work on some council activities alongside Essex County Council in the run-up to the new authorities taking full control in May 2028.

In October, Essex County Council cabinet member for health and adult social care Councillor John Spence said: “In terms of the risk of political change, I think we could all see that if there were to be elections next year, there would be a chance in the current political climate, you could have an administration come in with completely untested councillors responsible.”