A FORMER Thurrock Conservative councillor, who recently pledged his allegiance to the Reform Party, has slated the Labour government which is considering cancelling pending elections as it bids to reform local council governance.

In the past week Deputy Prime Minister Angela Rayner announced a white paper laying out plans for devolution of power proposing a major shake-up of local governance, with councils scrapped or merged and elected mayors being given more power.

The paper provides for a number of options – including the potential postponement of local government elections planned for May next year.,

Thurrock is due to hold its first all-out election in May, replacing the current election by thirds system, and putting councillors in power for four years.

However, as Thurrock Council might not officially exist within a couple of years, the government has said it believes it might be better to delay elections,

It has invited local authoriters to submit reasons why elections might be delayed.

Elections in Thurrock in 2025 were not scheduled. It should have been a 'fallow year' under longstanding regulations which saw groups of councillors elected in thirds, but following the authority's much-documented catastrophic financial collapse in 2022 and subsequent government intervention in its management, it was decided by intervening commissioners to hold elections for all 49 council seats in May, next year.

As the government rethinks its policies, Stanford East and Corringham Town councillor Alex Anderson, who was ousted by the Tories earlier this year and then renounced his independence to join Reform, branded the move as a "denying democracy."

Cllr Anderson said: "Labour are so scared of losing elections in May that they're considering taking the ultimate step – denying democracy."

In the wake of Labour's plans for local government reform, Cllr Anderson issued the following challenge: "Following confirmation that Labour's democracy-threatening government are likely to cancel some of May's local elections, I look forward to hearing John Kent make clear to Government in no uncertain terms that we in Thurrock will not accept being denied a vote in May."

In response, Labour leader Cllr Kent said: "We are still evaluating its contents of the paper was only published earlier this week.

"It is too early to be certain of what might lay ahead, but if Thurrock Council to be subsumed into a new, larger authority, it would seem pointless to waste vast sums of money holding elections to a council that may no longer exist within a year or so of those elections."

Independent Thurrock councillor Fraser Massey, who represents East Tilbury, said the issue wasn't straightforward. He said: "Personally am quite torn on this, I would want to see more details and very good reasons and direction to postponing or cancelling any elections.

"The white paper for me has caused more questions than answers, I hope more information on the impact to Thurrock and its residents can be made public."