Election Information

In light of the reorganisation, a county council election with a difference took place on 1 May 2008, when the County Council’s 63 Members stood down to enable people to vote afresh for the councillors they wanted to set up and run the new council.

The councillors elected will decide how the new council should be developed and set its first budget. They will also run the existing county council until the handover to the unitary council in April 2009, at which point they will become the county's first fully-fledged unitary councillors, representing local communities and making decisions for the new council which will be responsible for the full range of local authority services.

Two councillors were elected for each of the 63 county electoral divisions, as opposed to the former system where each county electoral division returned and was represented by one county councillor.

Current district councillors will remain in office until the unitary handover in April 2009.

Information Leaflet

We have produced a public information leaflet on the election. You will need Adobe Acrobat Reader to view this information.

2008 Election leaflet.pdf (5 pages, 413kb)