2026 Epping Forest District Council election

2026 Epping Forest District Council election

←  2024 7 May 2026 (2026-05-07)
18 seats to Epping Forest District Council 28 seats needed for a majority
First party Second party Third party   Leader Chris Whitbread Chris Pond Jon Whitehouse Party Conservative Loughton Residents Liberal Democrats Last election 29 seats, 38.2% 13 seats, 17.0% 7 seats, 15.7% Seats before 26 13 7   Fourth party Fifth party Sixth party   Leader None Elizabeth Gabbett Martin Morris Party Independent inc. EFIG Green Labour Last election 3 seats, 17.8% 1 seat, 4.1% 1 seat, 22.5% Seats before 5 1 1   Seventh party   Leader Jaymey McIvor Party Reform Last election 0 seats, 0.7% Seats before 1
Current composition of Epping Forest District Council      Conservative (26)     LRA (13)     Lib Dem (7)      EFIG (4)     Green (1)     Reform UK (1)      Labour (1)     Independent (1)
Leader before election Chris Whitbread Conservative Leader after election TBD

The 2026 Epping Forest District Council election will be held on Thursday 7 May 2026, alongside the other local elections in the United Kingdom that will held on the same day. 18 members of Epping Forest District Council in Essex will be elected.

Background

The 2026 Epping Forest District Council election will be held on 7 May 2026, following a period of unprecedented turmoil that has shaken the foundations of local politics in the district.

Since 7 July 2025, Epping has stood at the epicentre of national attention, with protests and riots erupting over the Government’s use of the Bell Hotel to house asylum seekers. Demonstrations regularly descended into confrontation, as local residents, anti-fascist campaigners, and far-right activists clashed in scenes unseen in the town for generations. ^[1] The unrest intensified after the sexual assault of a woman and a schoolgirl by a resident of the hotel, whose conviction and sentencing in September 2025 ignited further anger and polarised opinion across the district.

In response, the Conservative administration on the council took the unprecedented step of launching a legal challenge against the Home Office, securing a temporary High Court injunction in August 2025 to halt the placement of asylum seekers in the Bell Hotel. That victory proved fleeting: the ruling was overturned at the Court of Appeal, and the case now stands before the Supreme Court, due for a final judgment in October 2026. ^[2]

The crisis has fractured the Conservatives themselves. After months of mounting criticism over their handling of the Bell Hotel unrest, the group lost its majority for the first time since 2006, when two councillors resigned to join the Independents. ^[3] As a result, the Conservatives will enter the 2026 election defending a fragile minority administration, their dominance of the council for nearly two decades under unprecedented threat.

From December 2025 until mid-January, questions surrounded whether the 2026 district elections would proceed as scheduled. In December, the Government invited 63 councils, including Epping Forest, to request a one-year postponement of elections in light of ongoing plans for local government reorganisation, which would replace district, borough and county councils with larger unitary authorities. Following a meeting of the four political group leaders, Epping Forest District Council decided not to seek a delay. As a result, a proposed extraordinary council meeting—at which councillors could have voted on postponement—was cancelled, and the council formally confirmed that the elections would go ahead on 7 May 2026. Council leaders acknowledged concerns that holding elections could delay reorganisation but stated that maintaining democratic accountability took precedence. The decision was publicly welcomed by opposition councillors and the district’s Member of Parliament, Dr Neil Hudson, who argued that residents should retain the right to vote despite the wider structural uncertainty.

Seats up for election

	Incumbent party		Councillor up for election
Buckhurst Hill East & Whitebridge		Green	Elizabeth Gabbett
Buckhurst Hill West		Conservative	Smruti Patel
Chigwell with Lambourne		Conservative	Darshan Sunger
Epping East		Liberal Democrats	Edward Barnard
Epping West & Rural		Conservative	Holly Whitbread
Grange Hill		Conservative	Rashni Chahal Holden
Loughton Fairmead		Loughton Residents	Arash Ardakani
Loughton Forest		Loughton Residents	Ian Allgood
Loughton Roding		Loughton Residents	Chidi Nweke
Loughton St. John's		Loughton Residents	Graham Wiskin
North Weald Bassett		Conservative	Les Burrows
Ongar		Conservative	Paul Keska
Roydon & Lower Nazeing		Conservative	Ronda Pugsley
Rural East		Conservative	Ian Hadley
Theydon Bois with Passingford		Conservative	Sue Jones
Waltham Abbey North		Conservative	David Stocker
Waltham Abbey South & Rural		Conservative	Tim Matthews
Waltham Abbey West		Independent	Shane Yerrell(Not running for re-election)

By-elections (district and parish)

Below are by-elections that took place from the local elections in 2024 at both district level, and parish council level, including town councils.

Grange Hill

Below is the breakdown of the results from the 2024 parish council election to the Grange Hill ward on Chigwell Parish Council - the boundaries of which mirror those at the district level. The below table is for comparison with the Grange Hill by-election result.

2024 parish election results - Grange Hill ward
Party		Vote	%	Seats before	Seats after	±
	Conservative	4,505	55.9	5	3	2
	EFIG	3,081	38.3	0	4	4
	Green	473	6.0	0	0
Turnout		1,852	30.0
Electorate		6,142

Grange Hill (Chigwell Parish Council): 6 November 2025

Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	EFIG	Erika Skingsley	357	57.4	19.2
	Conservative	Shivaje Singh Karari	265	42.6	13.3
Majority			92	14.7
Turnout			622	10.0
	EFIG gain from Independent

Change in vote share is based on the ward-wide results achieved at the 2024 parish council election.

Buckhurst Hill West

Below is the breakdown of the results from the 2024 parish council election to the Buckhurst Hill West ward - the boundaries of which mirror those at the district level. The below table is for comparison with the Buckhurst Hill West by-election result.

2024 parish election result - Buckhurst Hill West ward
Party		Vote	%	Seatsbefore	Seatsafter	±
	Conservative	4,340	61.4	5	5
	Green	1,657	23.5	1	1
	EFIG	1,071	15.1	0	0
Turnout		1,754	34.0
Electorate		5,198

2025 parish by-election result - Buckhurst Hill West ward
Party		Vote	%	±%	Seatsbefore	Seatsafter	±
	Reform UK	976	33.4	N/A	0	2	2
	Conservative	768	26.2	25.0	5	3	2
	Green	682	23.3	0.2	1	1
	EFIG / Independent	320	11.0	N/A	0	0
	Liberal Democrat	180	6.2	N/A	0	0
Turnout		1,516	29.0
Electorate		5,196

Buckhurst Hill West (Buckhurst Hill Parish Council): 16 October 2025

Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Reform	Kieran Emery	493	33.4	N/A
	Reform	Natalie Wilding Barrett	483
	Conservative	Colette Fox	417	26.2	25.0
	Green	Kathryn Radley	355	23.3	0.2
	Conservative	Selina Seesunkur	351
	Green	Joanna Garbaty	327
	Independent	Casta Littlewood	187	11.0	N/A
	Liberal Democrats	Rahim Hussein	180	6.2	N/A
	EFIG	Lyubka Mihailova	70
	EFIG	Malachi Fontenelle	60
Majority
Turnout			1,516	29.0
	Reform gain from Conservative		Swing
	Reform gain from Conservative		Swing

Shelley

Shelley (Ongar Town Council): 22 May 2025

Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Reform	James Regan	352	77.8	N/A
	Labour	Alison Wingfield	100	22.2	N/A
Majority			252	55.6	N/A
Turnout			452
	Reform gain from Labour		Swing	0.0

Chipping Ongar

Chipping Ongar (Ongar Town Council): 22 May 2025

Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Reform	Annie-May O'Neill	N/A	N/A	N/A
Majority			N/A	N/A	N/A
Turnout			N/A
	Reform gain from Labour		Swing	0.0

References

1. "Epping hotel asylum seeker Hadush Kebatu jailed for sex assaults". BBC News. September 23, 2025.
2. "Epping council given date for The Bell Hotel legal challenge". BBC News. September 16, 2025.
3. "EEF NEWS - EXCLUSIVE: Two resignations see Conservatives lose overall control of district council". us12.campaign-archive.com.