A photo of a polling station sign

Election Process Commences

Potential candidates for this year’s Knutsford Town Council elections have 19 days to complete their nomination papers and submit them to Cheshire East Council as the election process commences.

The formal notice of election for the five town council wards has been published today by Cheshire East Council and candidates have until 4pm on 4th April to get their papers in.  All 15 seats on the council are up for election with candidates able to stand in any one of the five electoral wards (Cross Town, Norbury Booths, St John’s Wood, Nether or Bexton and Town Centre). Each ward will elect three councillors.

Nomination papers can be obtained from the Electoral Commission website, or the Town Council offices. Candidates will need a proposer and seconder from the ward they are standing in and all nomination papers must be hand delivered to Cheshire East’s Sandbach office to the election staff.

On 5th April Cheshire East Council will publish the list of nominated candidates, where wards are contested (more than three people standing for election) a poll will then take place on 4th May.

Qualification to stand for election

To be eligible to stand for election, candidates need to:

  • be a registered elector in Knutsford OR
  • have lived in the town or within 4.8km for the last 12 months OR
  • have had Knutsford as their primary place of work OR
  • have occupied premises in Knutsford for the last 12 months.

There are also criteria which disqualify candidates from standing, such as being subject to bankruptcy restrictions, having been convicted of a criminal offence with a sentence of three or more months imprisonment within the last five years and having been convicted of certain sexual offences.

Full guidance on standing for election is available on the Electoral Commission website: https://www.electoralcommission.org.uk/i-am-a/candidate-or-agent/parish-council-elections-england