Preston & Chorley councils both push for 2026 local elections to be cancelled

Next year's local elections in Preston and Chorley should be scrapped, the councils for the two areas are to tell the government.

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The call comes amid a major overhaul of the local authority landscape in Lancashire which will see the two authorities - and the county's 13 other councils - axed and replaced in 2028.

However, the move has caused opposition parties in Preston to cry foul - and concern from those in Chorley about the public's reaction to being denied a planned vote.

Preston City Council's cabinet and Chorley's full council have both voted to ask ministers for permission to pull the plug on the May 2026 polls.

Preston's Labour leader leader Matthew Brown said he believed cancellation would be a "proportionate" decision given that elections will be held in May 2027 for so-called 'shadow' versions of the replacement councils being created as part of the government-ordered shakeup - a year ahead of the new bodies formally coming into being.