Thursday 6 May: borough, county and police & crime commissioner elections

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Elections for Surrey County Council, Reigate & Banstead Borough Council and the Surrey Police & Crime Commissioner take place today, Thursday, 6 May 2021.

Polling stations are open from 7am to 10pm.

Information on voting and the elections can be found on a borough council webpage.

It’s a busier set of local elections than usual because both the borough council and police & crime commissioner elections that were supposed to happen in 2020 were postponed until this year because of the coronavirus pandemic, and so are now being held at the same time as the county council elections.

At the borough council, as well as the one-third of seats normally up for election (three out of four years), there are also by-elections for some vacant seats.

How often are elections held?

  • Surrey County Council elections take place every four years (this being one of them) for all 81 electoral divisions (10 of which fall within Reigate & Banstead).
  • The borough council is made up of 45 councillors (three for each of the 15 wards). A third are up for election in three out of four years. This year would have normally been the gap year with no elections, but the elections that should have taken place in 2020 are now being held plus any further vacant seats with a by-election
  • In 2019 there was a bumper year for the borough council elections as exceptionally all seats were up for election following boundary changes.
  • Surrey Police & Crime Commissioner elections also take place every four years, but the 2020 election was delayed because of the pandemic