Why are there no elections in Bolton in 2025?

Elections in the borough only take place three in every four years with 2025 being a 'fallow year'

Thousands of voters will be heading to the polls on May 1 — with tight contests at every level of English politics on-the-line.

Polling stations will be full of voters choosing councillors and mayors next Thursday.

But there won’t be any in Bolton in 2025. And there have never been any plans for voters to go to the polls in 2025.

And after Andy Burnham was elected in May with 63pc of the vote, the next Greater Manchester mayoral run-off is not until 2028.

Local elections and the poll for a metro mayor were held in all areas of Greater Manchester in May, 2024, closely followed the general election on July 4.

But the electorate will now have to wait until May 2026 to have their say on which councillors they want to represent them.

Voters in Bolton are set to elect members in 2026, 2027, 2028.

In each of those years, a third of councillors for the authority will be voted in.

After last year’s poll, Labour runs Bolton Council, however, despite being the largest party at the town hall, they do not have an overall majority of councillors.

The ‘fallow year’ for Greater Manchester elections means voters will only go to the polls in 2025 in the eventuality of a by-election caused by the resignation, death or disbarment of a councillor.

So which areas are going to the polls on May 1? Elections are taking place in 23 councils across England.

All seats will be contested for 14 county councils in Cambridgeshire, Derbyshire, Devon, Gloucestershire, Hertfordshire, Kent, Lancashire, Leicestershire, Lincolnshire, Nottinghamshire, Oxfordshire, Staffordshire, Warwickshire and Worcestershire.

Eight unitary authorities have elections in Buckinghamshire, Cornwall, County Durham, North Northamptonshire, Northumberland, Shropshire, West Northamptonshire and Wiltshire.

There is also a single metropolitan district, Doncaster, holding elections. Six mayoral elections are also happening: in the West of England, Cambridgeshire and Peterborough, North Tyneside, Doncaster and – for the first time – in Greater Lincolnshire and Hull and East Yorkshire.

A parliamentary by-election is also taking place in Runcorn and Helsby following the resignation of former Labour MP Mike Amesbury.