Polls are open until 10pm in Kingswood, where five candidates are standing for the Stroud District Council seat. Counting starts at 10.15pm tonight.

Three polling stations open at 7am today in the Kingswood ward of Stroud district, for a by-election to fill one seat on the district council. They close at 10pm.

Kingswood is in the far south of the district, about 11 miles from Stroud town and a mile from Wotton-under-Edge. The ward also takes in Hillesley and Tresham.

Five candidates are standing. The returning officer’s notice of poll lists them as:

  • COOK, Claire Louise, Labour Party
  • HULLS, Fred, Liberal Democrats
  • LIDDELL, Alasdair, Green Party
  • REES, Michael Alun, Reform UK
  • TANDY, Louise Jane, Local Conservatives

Only one district councillor is being elected.

Where to vote

The notice of poll gives three polling places for the ward’s four polling districts:

Station Address Polling district
1 Hopkins Hall, Jubilee Playing Field, Hillesley, GL12 7RA KA and KB
2 The Haybarn, Talbot Court Farm, Tresham, GL12 7RW KC
3 Kingswood Village Hall, Wickwar Road, Kingswood, GL12 7RF KD

Your poll card tells you which one you are registered at. You do not need the card itself to vote, but you do need photo ID.

Photo ID, and what to do if you have not got any

Stroud District Council’s voter ID page says the common forms are accepted at the polling station: passports, photo driving licences, bus passes, student PASS cards, veterans’ cards and some concessionary travel cards.

The deadline to apply for a free Voter Authority Certificate for this election passed at 5pm on Monday 24 August, and the ordinary proxy deadline passed on the same day. One route is still open today. Applications for an emergency proxy reach the electoral registration officer at Ebley Mill until 5pm today, under the terms set out in the council’s notice of election.

The count starts at 10.15pm

The council’s published election timetable puts verification and the count at 10.15pm tonight, straight after the poll closes. Postal votes are opened three times, the last of them at 8.30pm today.

Why the seat is vacant

Returning officer Kathy O’Leary published a notice of vacancy on Friday 24 July. It states, under section 87(2) of the Local Government Act 1972, that a casual vacancy had arisen in the Kingswood seat “following a resignation”. Two local government electors then requested an election, which triggered the 35-day timetable.

The notice does not name the outgoing councillor. The seat was won in May 2024 by Holly Simkiss for the Liberal Democrats, and she no longer appears on the council’s list of members.

The Liberal Democrats are defending a very large majority

Kingswood was one of the safest results in the district two years ago. The council’s own declaration of result for Thursday 2 May 2024 records:

Bar chart of the May 2024 Kingswood ward result: Liberal Democrats 689 votes, Conservative 79, Green 40, Labour 32
The last contest in Kingswood ward. Source: Stroud District Council declaration of result of poll, 4 May 2024. Graphic by Stroud Today.
Candidate Description Votes
SIMKISS, Holly Liberal Democrats 689 (elected)
LONG, Allison The Conservative Party Candidate 79
LYONS-TSAI, Hannah Michelle Green Party 40
RANDELL, Valerie Elizabeth Labour Party 32

That is 82% of the 840 valid votes. The electorate was 1,842, and 843 ballot papers were issued, a turnout of 45.77%. Three papers were rejected.

What it means for you

The winner will serve for about 19 months. Stroud District Council is abolished on 1 April 2028 and replaced by a single Gloucestershire Council, so whoever wins tonight holds the seat for less than half a normal term. We set out the reorganisation timetable in Stroud District Council to be abolished in April 2028.

One seat matters more than usual in this council. Stroud District Council has 51 seats. Its own member list currently shows 49 sitting councillors, with vacancies in Kingswood and in Rodborough. Of those 49, 24 are Green Party, 14 Labour, two Labour and Co-operative, six Conservative and Unionist, two Independent and one Liberal Democrat. (Stroud District Council, your councillors) The Liberal Democrat group is down to a single member while the Kingswood seat is empty.

Nothing about your bills or bins changes tonight. The district still runs waste collection, council tax billing and planning until 2028. Our guides to bin collection days, council tax bands and planning applications are unaffected by the result.

We will publish the declared result once the council issues it.