Labour, the Conservatives, the Lib Dems, the Greens and Reform UK are all standing in Rodborough on 13 October. Register to vote by midnight on Friday.
Five candidates are standing in the Rodborough by-election on Tuesday 13 October. Stroud District Council published the statement of persons nominated on Wednesday 16 September, after nominations closed at 4pm that day. One district seat is being filled.
The candidates, in the order the returning officer lists them, are:
- John Bloxsom, Labour Party
- Christopher John Easton, Local Conservatives
- George William James, Liberal Democrats
- Robin Layfield, Green Party
- Gerald Michael O’Brien, Reform UK
The descriptions above are the ones each candidate chose on the nomination paper. The Conservative candidate is standing as “Local Conservatives” rather than the party’s usual “The Conservative Party Candidate” wording.
The poll runs from 7am to 10pm. The notice is signed by Kathy O’Leary, the returning officer.
Register to vote by midnight on Friday
The register closes two days from now. The council’s own election timetable gives every remaining deadline:
- Midnight, Friday 25 September. Deadline to register to vote, at gov.uk/register-to-vote
- 5pm, Monday 28 September. Deadline to apply for, change or cancel a postal vote
- 5pm, Monday 5 October. Deadline to apply for a proxy vote
- 5pm, Monday 5 October. Deadline to apply for a Voter Authority Certificate, the free photo ID for people who have none of the accepted forms
- 5pm, Tuesday 13 October. Deadline for an emergency proxy, if something unexpected stops you voting on the day
Postal ballots go out in two batches, on Tuesday 29 September and from Monday 5 October. Photo ID is required to vote in person. If you already hold an accepted form of ID, you do not need to do anything before polling day.
Where to vote
The ward has five polling stations in four buildings, listed in the notice of poll:
- Rodborough Endowed School, Church Place, GL5 3NF (stations 1 and 5)
- Stroud Rugby Club, Dudbridge Hill, GL5 3HS (station 2)
- Gastrells Primary School, Kingscourt Lane, GL5 3PS (station 3)
- Rodborough Community Hall, Butterow West, GL5 3TZ (station 4)
Two separate stations run at Rodborough Endowed School, covering different parts of the register. Your poll card names the one you should use.
Two of the five have stood in Rodborough before
This is not a field of newcomers. Two of the candidates have been on a Rodborough ballot paper in the past two years, and both times the result was close.
John Bloxsom stood for Labour and Co-operative in the Rodborough division at the Gloucestershire County Council election on 1 May 2025. He lost to the Green Party’s Craig Alan Horrocks by 12 votes, 1,150 to 1,138, with Reform UK third on 850, according to the declaration of result. The county division is a larger area than the district ward: it had 9,807 electors and a turnout of 37.4%.
Robin Layfield stood in the ward at the district election of 2 May 2024, as an Independent, and took 450 votes. He is the Green Party candidate this time. The party’s own announcement on 10 September says he represented Rodborough on the district council from 2021 to 2024, was vice-chair of its Environment Committee for three years, and joined the Greens in July 2025. “I love Rodborough,” he is quoted as saying. “It’s where I’ve lived for the best part of my life, and I have really valued the opportunity to serve the ward.”
The candidate named on the nomination paper as Robin Mark Hesketh Layfield is recorded as “also known as: Robin Layfield” in the council’s notice of election agents. That is the name on the 2024 declaration.
The seat Labour is defending
Rodborough has two district seats and Labour holds both. At the all-out election on 2 May 2024 the declaration of result recorded Nigel Andrew Prenter (Labour) elected on 602 votes and Cathryn Elizabeth Hofmann (Labour) elected on 576. The two Green candidates took 539 and 505. Thirty-seven votes separated the second Labour candidate from the leading Green.
The ward had 3,535 electors, 1,745 ballot papers were issued and turnout was 49.36%.
The vacancy followed the resignation of Councillor Katy Hofmann, recorded in a notice of vacancy dated 1 September. We set out how the by-election was called and timetabled when the notice of election was published. Councillor Nigel Prenter continues to represent the ward.
One comparison is worth keeping in mind. A single-seat by-election on a Tuesday in October is a different contest from an all-out election in May. When Kingswood voted on 2 September, turnout was 37.3%.
What it means for you
The councillor elected on 13 October joins an authority whose own future is unsettled. Stroud District Council had been due to close on 1 April 2028 under local government reorganisation. The government paused that programme on 7 September and there is no date for its review to report.
If you want a say, the only deadline you cannot miss is Friday. Registering takes about five minutes online and you need your National Insurance number. Everything after that, postal votes, proxies and the free voter ID certificate, depends on already being on the register.
The count is at Ebley Mill from 10pm on polling night, so the result should be known in the early hours of Wednesday 14 October. We will report it.
For the rest of what the district council does for Rodborough, see our guides to bin collection days, council tax bands, parking in Stroud and planning applications.
Sources: Stroud District Council statement of persons nominated, notice of poll and situation of polling stations, notice of election agents and notice of vacancy for Rodborough ward, and its Rodborough elections timetable; declarations of result for Rodborough ward (2024) and Rodborough division (2025); Stroud District Green Party, 10 September 2026. All checked on 23 September 2026.
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