Elections for new Somerset Council to be held in May 2022

The new single authority will run Somerset from April 2023

Elections to a newly-created county authority will take place in 2022.

Voters will go to the polls in May to elect the 110 councillors who will form the new Somerset Council.

The unitary authority will replace Somerset County Council and the current four district councils (Mendip, Sedgemoor, Somerset West and Taunton, and South Somerset).

It will run alongside the district councils until they cease to exist in April 2023.

District councillors opposed the single authority and instead proposed two councils - Eastern and Western Somerset.

But the Conservative-led county council had their plans approved by Local Government Secretary Robert Jenrick in July.

The Department of Levelling Up, Housing and Communities has confirmed the election date.

Councils disbanded in 2023

Every part of the county will have two representatives - except for Glastonbury and Street, which will double from two to four.

There will also be a boundary review conducted by the Local Government Boundary Commission for England (LGBCE) - the findings of which will be implemented ahead of the next elections in May 2026.

MP Ian Liddell-Grainger was an opponent of the single authority approach

Somerset County Council leader David Fothergill said he welcomed the "clarity" news of the elections would bring.

MP Ian Liddell-Grainger, Conservative MP for Bridgwater and West Somerset, said he was "delighted" that "people will finally be given the chance to say what they think and elect the right people to make the best of what has been a shabby demonstration of the democratic process".

Cllr Leigh Redman, leader of Labour group on Somerset County Council, said he "welcomed" the fact that voters in Somerset would soon have the chance to select candidates for the new council.

"This council had passed its 'best by date' six months ago, we need to give the people the chance to elect a new one and we can now all aim for May 2022," he said.