2024 Epping Forest District Council election

2024 Epping Forest District Council election

←  2023 2 May 2024 (2024-05-02) 2026 →
All 54 seats to Epping Forest District Council 28 seats needed for a majority
First party Second party Third party   Leader Chris Whitbread Caroline Pond Jon Whitehouse Party Conservative Loughton Residents Liberal Democrats Last election 34 seats, 48.3% 13 seats, 0.0% 6 seats, 22.4% Seats before 34 13 5   Fourth party Fifth party   Leader Simon Heap Party Independent Green Last election 3 seats, 4.6% 2 seats, 2.1% Seats before 4 2
Council control before election Chris Whitbread Conservative Council control after election TBD

The 2024 Epping Forest District Council election is scheduled to be held on Thursday 2 May 2024, alongside the other local elections in the United Kingdom being held on the same day. All 54 members of Epping Forest District Council in Essex will be elected following boundary changes.

Background

Since its creation in 1974, only the Conservatives have ever formed majorities on the council. The party held control until 1994, before retaking the council from no overall control in 2007. ^[1] The Conservatives briefly fell behind both Labour and the Liberal Democrats in 1996, but regained their status as the largest party in 1999.

In the most recent election, the Conservatives lost 1 seat with 48.3% of the vote, the Liberal Democrats gained 2 with 22.4%, independents and the Green Party gained and lost no seats with 4.6% and 2.1% respectively, and the British Democratic Party lost representation with 1.3% (their one councillor had been elected for the For Britain Movement). The Loughton Residents Association contested no seats due to the electoral cycle, so maintained their 13 seats.

Boundary changes

Epping Forest usually elects its councillors in thirds, on a 4-year cycle. However, following boundary changes, all councillors will be elected to the new wards. ^[2] The change reduces the number of councillors by 4.

Old wards [3]	No. of seats	New wards	No. of seats
Broadley Common, Epping Upland and Nazeing	1	Buckhurst Hill East and Whitebridge	3
Buckhurst Hill East	2	Buckhurst Hill West	3
Buckhurst Hill West	3	Chigwell with Lambourne	3
Chigwell Row	1	Epping East	3
Chigwell Village	2	Epping West and Rural	3
Chipping Ongar, Greensted and Marden Ash	2	Grange Hill	3
Epping Hemnall	3	Loughton Fairmead	3
Epping Lindsey and Thornwood Common	3	Loughton Forest	3
Grange Hill	3	Loughton Roding	3
Hastingwood, Matching and Sheering Village	1	Loughton St John’s	3
High Ongar, Willingale and The Rodings	1	North Weald Bassett	3
Lambourne	1	Ongar	3
Loughton Alderton	2	Roydon and Lower Nazeing	3
Loughton Broadway	2	Rural East	3
Loughton Fairmead	2	Theydon Bois with Passingford	3
Loughton Forest	2	Waltham Abbey North	3
Loughton Roding	2	Waltham Abbey South and Rural	3
Loughton St John's	2	Waltham Abbey West	3
Loughton St Mary's	2
Lower Nazeing	2
Lower Sheering	1
Moreton and Fyfield	1
North Weald Bassett	2
Passingford	1
Roydon	1
Shelley	1
Theydon Bois	2
Waltham Abbey High Beach	1
Waltham Abbey Honey Lane	3
Waltham Abbey North East	2
Waltham Abbey Paternoster	2
Waltham Abbey South West	2

Summary

Council composition

After 2023 election			Before 2024 election [4]			After 2024 election
Party		Seats	Party		Seats	Party		Seats
	Conservative	34		Conservative	34		Conservative
	Loughton Residents	13		Loughton Residents	13		Loughton Residents
	Liberal Democrats	6		Liberal Democrats	5		Liberal Democrats
	Independent	3		Independent	4		Independent
	Green	2		Green	2		Green

Changes:

• January 2024: Cherry McCredie leaves Liberal Democrats to sit as an independent ^[5]

Election result

2024 Epping Forest District Council election
Party		Candidates	Seats	Gains	Losses	Net gain/loss	Seats %	Votes %	Votes	+/−
	Conservative	48	6
	Loughton Residents	14	1
	Liberal Democrats	15
	Independent	13
	Green	4
	Labour	22
	TUSC	2
	British Democratic	1
	English Democrat	1
	Reform UK	1
	UKIP	1

Candidates

The Statement of Persons Nominated, which details the candidates standing in each ward, was released by Epping Forest District Council following the close of nominations on 8 April 2024. ^[6]

Buckhurst Hill East & Whitebridge

Buckhurst Hill East & Whitebridge (3 seats)

Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Conservative	Jane Bagshaw
	Conservative	Alexia Sparrow
	Conservative	Marshall Vance
	Green	Dewole Aradeon
	Green	Elizabeth Gabbett*
	Independent	Ben Brown
	Labour	Alain Laviolette
	Loughton Residents	Rose Brookes*
	Loughton Residents	Barbara Cohen
	Loughton Residents	Chris Kent

Buckhurst Hill West

Buckhurst Hill West (3 seats)

Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Conservative	Bob Church
	Conservative	Smruti Patel*
	Conservative	Ken Williamson*
	Green	Rebecca Fricker
	Green	Kethryn Radley
	Independent	Lyubka Mihailova
	Labour	Tom Kasperkowicz
	Liberal Democrats	Ishvinder Matharu

Chigwell with Lambourne

Chigwell with Lambourne (3 seats)

Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Conservative	Craig McCann*
	Conservative	Kaz Rizvi*
	Conservative	Darshan Sunger*
	Independent	Shahzaad Malik
	Labour	Tony Casaluci

Epping East

Epping East (3 seats)

Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Conservative	James Abbott
	Conservative	Ian Roberts
	Conservative	Mari-Louise Whitbread
	Independent	Cherry McCredie*
	Labour	Paul Thomas
	Liberal Democrats	Edward Barnard
	Liberal Democrats	Janet Whitehouse*
	Liberal Democrats	Jon Whitehouse*

Epping West & Rural

Epping West & Rural (3 seats)

Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Conservative	Andy Green*
	Conservative	Peter Murray
	Conservative	Holly Whitbread*
	Independent	Nigel Avey
	Labour	Sean Voitov
	Liberal Democrats	Mandy George
	Liberal Democrats	Razia Sharif*
	Liberal Democrats	Elaine Thatcher

Grange Hill

Grange Hill (3 seats)

Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Conservative	Osman Ali
	Conservative	Rashni Chahal Holden
	Conservative	Alan Lion*
	Independent	Alana Aradeon
	Independent	Lisa Morgan*
	Independent	Debby Rye
	Labour	Angela Ayre
	Liberal Democrats	Steve Hume

Loughton Fairmead

Loughton Fairmead (3 seats)

Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Conservative	Bobby Nagpal
	Labour	Gareth Rawlings
	Labour	Alastair Smith
	Loughton Residents	Arash Ardakani
	Loughton Residents	Will Kauffman
	Loughton Residents	Louise Mead*

Loughton Forest

Loughton Forest (3 seats)

Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Conservative	Katharine Hawes
	Conservative	Sarah Metcalfe
	Conservative	Jan Ridding
	Labour	Tom Draper
	Liberal Democrats	Naomi Davies
	Loughton Residents	Ian Allgood*
	Loughton Residents	Roger Baldwin*
	Loughton Residents	Michael Owen*
	TUSC	Scott Jones

Loughton Roding

Loughton Roding (3 seats)

Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Conservative	Tim Parry
	Independent	Malachi Fontenelle
	Independent	Stephen Murray*
	Labour	Debbie Wild
	Loughton Residents	Chidi Nweke*
	Loughton Residents	Sheree Rackham

Loughton St. John's

Loughton St. John's (3 seats)

Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Conservative	Valerie Metcalfe
	Labour	Emma Roberts
	Loughton Residents	Howard Kauffman*
	Loughton Residents	Chris Pond*
	Loughton Residents	Graham Wiskin

North Weald Bassett

North Weald Bassett (3 seats)

Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Conservative	Nigel Bedford*
	Conservative	Les Burrows*
	Conservative	Les Mills
	Independent	Tom Bromwich
	Labour	Kevin Hind
	Labour	Paul Stockton

Ongar

Ongar (3 seats)

Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Conservative	Mary Dadd
	Conservative	Paul Keska*
	Conservative	Jaymey McIvor*
	Labour	Ronald Huish
	Labour	Timothy White
	Labour	Alison Wingfield
	Liberal Democrats	Monica Richardson

Roydon & Lower Nazeing

Roydon & Lower Nazeing (3 seats)

Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Conservative	Richard Bassett*
	Conservative	Ronda Pugsley*
	Conservative	Chris Whitbread*
	Labour Co-op	Alex Kyriacou
	UKIP	Martin Harvey

Rural East

Rural East (3 seats)

Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Conservative	Ray Balcombe*
	Conservative	Ian Hadley*
	Conservative	Richard Morgan*
	English Democrat	Robin Tilbrook
	Labour	Ann Huish
	Liberal Democrats	Lesley Paine
	Liberal Democrats	Bijal Pattani
	Reform UK	Peter Bell

Theydon Bois with Passingford

Theydon Bois with Passingford (3 seats)

Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Conservative	Heather Brady*
	Conservative	Sue Jones
	Conservative	John Philip*
	Independent	Christine Burgess
	Independent	Louis Turchin
	Labour	Christine Mortimer
	Liberal Democrats	Clive Amos*
	Liberal Democrats	Tippy Cornish
	Liberal Democrats	Richard Griffiths

Waltham Abbey North

Waltham Abbey North (3 seats)

Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	British Democratic	Julian Leppert
	Conservative	Jeane Lea*
	Conservative	Fraser Scott
	Conservative	David Stocker*
	Labour	Martin Morris
	TUSC	Adeline Walsh

Waltham Abbey South & Rural

Waltham Abbey South & Rural (3 seats)

Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Conservative	Steven Heather*
	Conservative	Maria Markham*
	Conservative	Tim Matthews*
	Labour	Simon Harris

Waltham Abbey West

Waltham Abbey West (3 seats)

Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Conservative	Jodie Lucas*
	Conservative	Joseph Parsons*
	Conservative	Shane Yerrell*
	Labour	Bob Greyson

References

1. "Epping Forest District Council Election Results 1973-2012" (PDF). Elections Centre. Retrieved 11 March 2024.
2. "The Epping Forest (Electoral Changes) Order 2023", legislation.gov.uk , The National Archives, SI 2023/819, retrieved 11 March 2024
3. "The District of Epping Forest (Electoral Changes) Order 2001", legislation.gov.uk , The National Archives, SI 2001/2444, retrieved 11 March 2024
4. "Your Councillors by party". Epping Forest District Council. 6 March 2024. Retrieved 6 March 2024.
5. Boothroyd, David. "STIRLING CONSERVATIVE HOLD, FOR A' THAT". Local Councils. Retrieved 10 March 2024.
6. "Statement of Persons Nominated". Epping Forest District Council. 8 April 2024. Retrieved 10 April 2024.