This Thursday’s ( 1 May ) Nottinghamshire County Council election could be the last of its kind with local government reform looming – but the result is still being very closely watched locally and nationally.
Nottinghamshire residents will head to the polls on 1 May, and results will follow on Friday. As it’s a county council election, it’s not open to people who live in the city – which is controlled by a different authority.
There are just 23 local elections across England’s 317 local authorities happening on 1 May, with Nottinghamshire County Council being one of them.
All 66 seats at the currently Conservative-led county authority are up for election – this vote does not cover smaller district or borough councils.
However, two seats in Mansfield North will be decided at a later date following the recent death of Trade Union and Socialist Coalition candidate Karen Seymour. A by-election is expected to take place around June.
The County Council is currently held by the Conservatives with a slim majority. They have 34 seats – the minimum number needed to retain control.
There are currently 14 Labour councillors, 15 in the Independent Group (led by the Ashfield Independents), as well as one Reform councillor and one unaligned independent member.
County councils oversee major services such as adult and children’s social care, education, roads, and waste disposal, while district and borough councils handle more localised responsibilities like waste collection and parks.
This could be the last-ever Nottinghamshire County Council election in its current form due to planned local government reform, which may see councils reorganised and new “strategic authorities” or combined councils created between 2027 and 2028.
Nottinghamshire and Derbyshire also saw their first-ever combined authority established after the East Midlands Combined County Authority (EMCCA) election in May 2024.
Labour’s Claire Ward won with 40.3% of the vote and a 50,000-vote majority over Conservative candidate Ben Bradley.
The Green Party came third in that EMCCA election with 50,000 votes, followed closely by Reform UK with 49,000 votes.
Labour’s momentum continued into the 2024 General Election just two months later, where the party secured 412 parliamentary seats nationally.
In Nottinghamshire, Labour gained six seats, a stark contrast to their losses in 2019.
However, since then, key parts of Nottinghamshire have seen unusual political shifts – largely due to a turbulent first few months for the new Labour government.
In January 2025, 18 Labour Broxtowe Borough councillors resigned to form the independent Broxtowe Alliance group, criticising the Labour government’s cuts to pensioners’ winter fuel allowance.
Reform UK, which has been gaining ground in national polls, has also made preliminary gains in Nottinghamshire outside of elections.
Three Independent Mansfield District councillors defected to Reform in October 2024, followed by Independent County Councillor John Doddy in January 2025.
Reform UK is fielding candidates in all 66 seats in Thursday’s election – a significant increase from just eight candidates in the 2021 local election.
Ashfield MP Lee Anderson also became Reform’s first elected MP in the July 2024 General Election.
Reform’s growing influence adds uncertainty for the Ashfield Independents, who currently hold 10 County Council seats and control Ashfield District Council.
A recent YouGov poll (published 28 April) shows 26% of respondents would vote Reform UK in a hypothetical general election, putting them ahead of Labour (23%) and the Conservatives (20%).
Since January 2025, the poll has shown a close contest between Labour and Reform, with both outperforming the Conservatives.
Given Reform’s local gains and polling trends, the Conservatives’ already narrow majority could disappear in Friday’s results.
Last Thursday (24 April), Conservative Party Leader Kemi Badenoch did not rule out a potential Conservative-Reform UK coalition if needed to retain control of the council.
Meanwhile, the Mansfield North division election will be rescheduled following Karen Seymour’s death, with a date set after Friday’s count. The division elects two councillors, meaning a final result could be delayed if voting is close.
Local elections typically see lower turnout than general elections – just 40.7% voted in 2021, compared to 59.7% in the 2024 general election (down 7.6% from 2019).
As for the final result, the only certainty in a Nottinghamshire County Council election is drama.
Nottinghamshire is one of the most unpredictable counties in UK politics. Since 2005, control of the council has switched three times between Labour and the Conservatives.
• Local Elections 2025: Nottinghamshire County Council full list of candidates
