Message from Lucy Townsend – Returning Officer
Dear All,
There’s a lot of activity regarding the local elections so I thought it would be useful to summarise some of the key aspects of the nominations process for you to share with your local parish councillors, which should also help you to respond to any enquires you may receive.
Background
All parish council seats are now up for re-election. If sitting councillors wish to continue in office, they must deliver their nomination forms to my appointed staff at the relevant delivery location as specified on the Notice of Election. The candidate or someone they trust may deliver the nomination forms.
Completing nomination forms
People have until 4pm on Wed 2 April 2025 to deliver their nomination forms. We are advising everyone to not delay and submit them as soon as possible. It’s important to note there are two types of nomination forms: local government (for standing as a Wiltshire Councillor) and parish (for standing as a city, town and parish councillor) so please ensure the right paperwork is being completed.
A PDF of the parish council nomination forms can be found at Information for candidates - Wiltshire Council. Parish council nomination forms should be used for towns and cities as well.
There are two separate appointment forms, one for booking a single appointment for one candidate's nomination forms, and one to book an appointment to bring in multiple candidate nomination forms. People can bring up to five candidate nomination forms for one multiple appointment.
Submitting nomination forms
As I’m sure you know, the booking system to enable candidates to bring in nomination forms is now live and we are strongly encouraging candidates to book an appointment because we cannot guarantee that people dropping-in can be seen on demand.
In order to use the booking system, people will need to create a ‘MyWilts’ account on the website.
The booking system will automatically provide the delivery location of where the nominations should be delivered when they book.
Here are some other top tips for the nomination process:
The checklist at the front of the nomination paper is a vital tool to ensure people have completed the form as required. Remember people should submit all of the pages of all the forms, even the legislation.
Check the dates – the earliest a nomination can be signed is 2 March 2025
Check the subscribers’ electoral registration numbers. Our customer services team is happy to confirm electoral registration numbers if anyone wishes to call 0300 456 0112 with the full name and address of their subscribers. More information on subscribers can be found on the Electoral Commission website.
Double check people are using the correct form. For election to Wiltshire Council, people must use the form for ‘Local Government’ elections. For election to a parish, town or city council people must use the form for ‘Parish’ elections.
If you haven’t already, please encourage people to watch our candidate and agent webinar for more helpful information on the nomination process
We’d like to remind you that if people are bringing in nomination forms on behalf of candidates, they will be asked to fill in a contact form for each individual candidate, which includes providing a personal email and phone number, so that we are able to email them regarding the status of their nomination forms and other electoral information. Please have this information to hand when attending an appointment.
What happens next?
When nominations close, I as Returning Officer will publish the Notices which will show all the candidates standing in each electoral area and if the election has been contested. This information will be available online at Local elections - Wiltshire Council by 4pm on Thursday 3 April.
If the election is not contested, then the candidates that submitted nomination papers are automatically elected and will take office on Tuesday 6 May 2025.
As Returning Officer I will be happy to supply the contact information provided as part of the nomination process so that you can contact your new councillors. The candidates are aware that we will be sharing this with you.
Date for your diary: Thank you once again to everyone that attended our webinar in February. We are holding another webinar for candidates and agents on Thursday 8 April from 6pm which will be an opportunity to ask questions and for us to share information on what to expect beyond the nominations process, including the procedures for postal vote opening, polling day and the verification and count. We’ll have more details on how to book onto that session soon.
Please continue to visit our webpages Information for candidates - Wiltshire Council and Local elections - Wiltshire Council as we are updating these regularly.
If you have any other questions about the booking system or nominations process, please don’t hesitate to contact us on 0300 456 0112.
Kind regards
Lucy Townsend
Returning Officer for Wiltshire
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