2027 Bath and North East Somerset Council election
Future English local election
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The 2027 Bath and North East Somerset Council election is due to be held on 6 May 2027 to elect all 59 members of Bath and North East Somerset Council in Somerset, England.[1] It will take place on the same day as the other local elections held across the United Kingdom.
6 May 2027
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All 59 seats to Bath and North East Somerset Council 30 seats needed for a majority | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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Political composition of Bath and North East Somerset Council by ward going into the 2027 election. Yellow denotes Liberal Democrat, blue Conservative, red Labour, green Green and grey Independent representation; striped wards have mixed representation. | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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The Liberal Democrats, led by council leader Kevin Guy, will be defending the majority they won at the 2023 election, when the party took 41 of the 59 seats.[2][3]
Background
Electoral system
Bath and North East Somerset Council is a unitary authority in the West of England, created in 1996 on the abolition of Avon County Council. The whole council is elected together every four years using the first-past-the-post system.[1] The authority has 33 wards returning 59 councillors: 26 wards each return two councillors and seven wards each return one. These boundaries were introduced for the 2019 election following an electoral review by the Local Government Boundary Commission for England, and the same boundaries apply for the 2027 election.[4]
Local government reorganisation
The 2027 local elections coincide with the first elections held under the reorganisation of local government in England, under which two-tier areas of county and district councils are to be abolished and replaced by new single-tier unitary authorities. As Bath and North East Somerset has been a unitary authority since 1996, it is outside the scope of the reorganisation and continues unchanged, holding its ordinary scheduled whole-council election on 6 May 2027.[1]
Council composition
Following the 2023 election the composition of the council was:[2]
| 41 | 7 | 5 | 3 | 3 |
| LD | Lab | I | Con | G |
Prior to the 2027 election the composition of the council was:[5][a]
| 39 | 9 | 6 | 3 | 2 |
| LD | I | Lab | G | Con |
During the 2023–2027 term several councillors changed the party or group for which they had been elected. Ann Morgan, elected for High Littleton as a Liberal Democrat in 2023, subsequently sat as an Independent.[6] By 2026 the council's non-aligned members sat in three strands: an Independents group, the Independents for B&NES group, and unaligned councillors.[5]
Previous election
The result of the 2023 election, at which the Liberal Democrats increased their majority and the Conservative group leader Vic Pritchard lost his seat, was as follows.[2]
| Party | Seats | +/– | Votes | % | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Liberal Democrats | 41 |  4 | 40,739 | 41.9 | |
| Labour | 7 | 2 | 15,256 | 15.7 | |
| Independent | 5 |  1 | 5,620 | 5.8 | |
| Conservative | 3 | 8 | 23,121 | 23.8 | |
| Green | 3 | 3 | 12,440 | 12.8 | |
| Total | 59 | 97,176 | 100.0 | ||
By-elections
Several by-elections were held between the 2023 and 2027 elections.
Saltford
| Party | Candidate | Votes | % | ±% | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Independent | Christopher John Warren | 587 | 29.8 | −1.0 | |
| Liberal Democrats | Hossein Pirooz | 583 | 29.6 | −2.8 | |
| Conservative | Andrew David Busby | 375 | 19.0 | −7.3 | |
| Reform | Daniel Patrick Condick | 205 | 10.4 | N/A | |
| Green | Luanne Thornton | 159 | 8.1 | −0.4 | |
| Labour | Jane Emma Giddins | 60 | 3.0 | −7.1 | |
| Majority | 4 | 0.2 | N/A | ||
| Turnout | 1,973 | 40.29 | –4.32 | ||
| Registered electors | 4,897 | ||||
| Independent gain from Liberal Democrats | Swing | ||||
Mendip
| Party | Candidate | Votes | % | ±% | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Liberal Democrats | Simon James McCombe | 496 | 57.1 | –18.2 | |
| Reform | Stuart Michael Ball | 191 | 22.0 | N/A | |
| Conservative | Jon Elford | 84 | 9.7 | –6.7 | |
| Green | Charles Harrison Fenn | 57 | 6.6 | +2.0 | |
| Labour | Martin Edward Burton | 40 | 4.6 | +0.9 | |
| Majority | 305 | 35.1 | –23.9 | ||
| Turnout | 868 | 37.53 | –9.26 | ||
| Registered electors | 2,313 | ||||
| Liberal Democrats hold | |||||
Widcombe & Lyncombe
| Party | Candidate | Votes | % | ±% | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Liberal Democrats | Stuart Pieter Bridge | 769 | 44.4 | –14.7 | |
| Green | Neil Howard | 267 | 15.4 | –0.2 | |
| Labour | Helen Torrance | 212 | 12.2 | +4.2 | |
| Reform | Aaron Scott | 206 | 11.9 | N/A | |
| Conservative | Matt Corner | 149 | 8.6 | –13.9 | |
| Independent | Casey Bernard Bailey Nolan | 83 | 4.8 | N/A | |
| Independent | Madeline Blackburn | 45 | 2.6 | N/A | |
| Majority | 502 | 29.0 | N/A | ||
| Turnout | 1,737 | 35 | –15.5 | ||
| Liberal Democrats hold | |||||
Notes
- The figures reflect the 2023 election result as altered by the 2025 by-elections and by changes of affiliation during the term, as recorded in the council's published list of members. Sources differ on the precise totals, giving the Liberal Democrats between 38 and 40 seats.