ELECTIONS will take place on Thursday 5th May to choose councillors who will represent the area for the first Somerset Council, which will be created next year. At the same time, town councillors will be selected to represent the Berkley Down ward on Frome Town Council.
These are important elections for Somerset with the creation of a new, unitary council in April 2023 – the first major change to the way the county is governed in almost 50 years.
The town council elections offer the chance for people to stand for their community at grass roots level. Independents for Frome (IFF) are uncontested in six wards, maintaining 14 out of the 17 town council seats available; the only contested ward is Berkley Down, with three IFF and an independent representative standing for election.
Frome Town Council candidates:
Berkley Down ward: Eve Berry (Independent), Anita Jane Collier (IfF), Anne Marie Hills (IfF), Benjamin David Still (IfF).
Somerset County
Council candidates:
Frome North: Adam Owen Matthew Boyden (LD), John Martin Clarke (Grn), Christine Cockroft (LD), Dawn Adele Denton (Con), Lollie Melton (Grn), Dale Viven Spree (Con) and Steve Tanner (IfF).
Frome East: Eve Berry (Con), William Shane Collins (Grn), Helen Rachel Kay (Grn), Alex Lawrence-Berkley (LD), Janine Louise Nash (LD), Scott Anthony Joseph Ward (IfF) and Dan Wood (Con).
Frome West: Martin John Dimery (Grn), Michael John Dunk (Grn), Damon John Hooton (LD), Richard Francis Pinnock (LD), Mike Rideout (Con), Byron Kingsley Taylor (Lab), and Hilary Anne Thomas (Con).
Elections explained
Town council, district council and county council elections are usually held every four years. In 2022 town/parish elections are being brought forward to be in line with unitary elections for Somerset, so the following election won’t be for another five years. At the 2022 election, residents in Frome’s Berkley Down ward will be able to vote for town/parish councillors, and across the area, new councillors will be voted in for the new Somerset Council.
On 1st April 2023, the county council and four district councils will be disbanded and become the new unitary Somerset Council. For the first ‘transition’ year, councillors who are voted-in at the May 2022 unitary elections will work to oversee the process to unitary. Then from 1st April 2023 they will sit on the new Somerset Council as unitary councillors where they will serve for the normal term of four years.
Current district councillors will remain until May 2023. For their first year, the newly elected Somerset Council councillors will take responsibility for all current County Council services and oversee the local government reorganisation to establish a single unitary council on 1 April 2023.
From 1 April 2023, the 110 councillors of the unitary council will be responsible for services that are currently delivered by the county and four district councils.
District councils will remain until 31 March 2023, and the councillors serving on them will continue in their roles until that date.
Casting your vote
Voters have three options for casting their ballot – in person at the polling station, by post or by proxy. The last day to apply for a postal vote is 5pm on Tuesday 19 April 2022. The last day to apply for a proxy vote is 5pm on Tuesday 26 April 2022. If you have any questions or queries, please email Electoral Services at elections@mendip.gov.uk or call 0300 303 8588.
