ELECTIONS MAY 2025
Every parish, town, community, and unitary council in Northamptonshire has elections on 1 May 2025. Every existing parish, town, community, and unitary councillor retires. If you are an existing councillor and you wish to stand for re-election for another four-year term, you will need to submit nomination papers by 4pm on Wednesday 2 April 2025. Candidates in North Northamptonshire will need to deliver their nomination papers to North Northamptonshire Council (NNC) in Kettering.
A councillor is elected under the provisions of the Representation of the People Act 1983 and there is a clue in the name. A councillor is a representative, and electors should have the opportunity to choose who represents them. That opportunity is taken away if the election is uncontested (i.e. where there are fewer or the same number of candidates as places). An uncontested election is still an election, but all the candidates are declared elected, and no poll is held. Local electors do not have the opportunity to choose who elects them.
Nomination Papers
Anyone interested in standing for election must submit a nomination paper during the defined nomination period, which immediately precedes the election. Candidates aiming to become a Councillor for a town or parish need to complete the relevant nomination pack (see below).
The timeframe and deadline for submitting nominations will be announced in the Notice of Election. Prospective candidates should carefully note the submission deadlines and the location of the accepting office. Late submissions will not be accepted under any circumstances.
Nomination packs can be either handwritten or typed, but all signatures must be original (wet signatures).
The original nomination papers must be delivered by hand to the relevant office, as specified in the Notice of Election, before the close of nominations. The Returning Officer will not accept emails or photocopies of the final submission.
Nomination papers can be obtained from
Bulwick Parish Clerk - Helen Keech (clerk.bulwickpc@gmail.com)
Encouraging Bulwick Community to Vote
If Bulwick council has a contested election, we are going to encourage our community to vote.
Below is information on the timescales for registering to vote, how and where you can vote and reminder of the requirement for ID at polling stations.
New Council
All councillors, regardless of whether they have served in the previous term, must complete:
Declaration of Acceptance of Office (at or before the first meeting after the election)
Register of Interests (Within 28 days of taking up office)
Election Expense Claims (even if £0!)
All of which will be provide by the Bulwick Parish Council Clerk
The Council must hold its annual meeting within 14 days of councillors taking office (4 days after the election) and the first item on the agenda must be election of the Chair.
If you have an uncontested election and have vacancies, the Council has 35 working days to co-opt from the date of the election. The process for a vacancy can be found here. The Bulwick Parish Council does not need to post a notice of the vacancy.
Training for Councillors
Councillors will need to complete the Training Needs Analysis for Councillors to identify their gaps in skills and knowledge and where appropriate training can help plug those gaps: Training Needs Analysis
All new councillors should complete the Foundation stage of the Councillor Development Framework as a minimum, details can be found here: Foundation
Councillors wishing to join specific committees should do the relevant training for that committee, for example a councillor wanting to be on the Planning Committee should attend Planning Nuts and Bolts and Responding to Planning Applications as a minimum.
New Chairs or Mayors should look to complete the Leader stage of the Councillor Development Framework, details can be found here: Leader
To set expectations for training the Bulwick Parish Council has a robust Training Policy and Statement of Intent,
