An April by-election will take place in Bury after the shock departure of a Tottington councillor, the local authority has confirmed.
Luis McBriar suddenly quit his role on Sunday, February 22, after starting a new job that requires him to be ‘politically neutral’. Now residents will be asked to cast their vote for a new representative between 7am and 10pm Thursday, April 2, for a representative to take over the remaining two years of McBriar’s term.
Some members of the council had hoped to roll the election of a new representative into the May elections in ten weeks time to avoid a cost of around £20,000-£25,000 for a separate election. But under electoral law, the local authority has to open the polls if two voters request a by-election.
The local authority has confirmed it has received two such notifications. The deadline to register to vote is midnight on Tuesday, 17 March, and the deadline to register to vote by proxy or by post is 5pm on Wednesday, 18 March. The applications can be made online.
Residents of Tottington will now need to attend two elections – one in April and the planned election on Thursday, 7 May. Voters are reminded that they will need photo ID to vote in person.
McBriar said the last-minute announcement was because he ‘wanted to keep representing my constituents until the last moment’. The Tottington councillor was first elected as a Conservative in 2021, but defected last summer after an internal dispute left the local party bitterly divided.
He has represented his ward as an independent in the Together for Bury group since then.
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