Buckinghamshire Council unitary and parish elections Thursday 1 May 2025

Buckinghamshire Council unitary and Parish Council elections will be held on Thursday 1 May 2025.

You will be able to vote for candidates to fill:

• all parish council seats (if contested)
• all of Buckinghamshire Council's 97 seats in each of the 49 wards

If you have any questions about the elections, contact electoral services.

The Notice of Election will be published on Tuesday 18 March 2025.

Poll cards will be sent out on 18 March to everyone who has registered to vote. You do not need a poll card to vote, but it makes voting quicker if you take it with you to your polling station.

We will send out postal votes around;

• 11 April for postal vote applications received before 24 March
• 17 April for postal vote applications received after 24 March

The deadline to apply for a postal vote is 5pm on 14 April.

If you think you will be away around these dates, we recommend applying for a proxy vote.

Postal votes are sent first class, but we cannot guarantee delivery dates as it depends on the postal service.

There will be 2 online briefings on the dates below to explain the 1 May election process, including submitting nominations, the verification and the count.

Colleagues from the Electoral Commission and Thames Valley Police will also provide information on: Code of Conduct, handling postal votes, spending rules, security and election offences.

• Candidate and agent briefing 1 - Tuesday 4 March at 6pm, Teams live link
• Candidate and agent briefing 2 - Thursday 6 March at 6pm, Teams live link

Before you (a candidate) complete your nomination papers, you should check your eligibility to stand for election.

Guidance is available on the Electoral Commission website on:

• eligibility to stand for unitary elections
• eligibility to stand for parish elections

You as a candidate are responsible for making sure you're eligible and are not disqualified.

Parish Clerks and electoral services are unable to confirm if candidates are eligible or disqualified from standing for election.

You can download the template nomination papers on the Electoral Commission's website. The papers consist of:

• 1a Nomination paper
• 1b Home address form (part 1 and part 2)
• 2c Candidate's consent to nomination (including the pages of legislation)

You then only need to fill in the following forms in certain circumstances:

• certificate of authorisation, if you plan to use a political party name or description
• request for a party emblem, if you plan to use a political party's emblem
• notification of election agent, if you're nominating yourself for the unitary election

View the:

• nomination papers for local government elections
• nomination papers for parish council elections

To assist you when completing the above nomination papers, find annotated nominations papers below, giving examples of how the forms should be completed.

• annotated nomination guidance for local government elections
• annotated nomination guidance for parish council elections

Your nomination paper must be signed/subscribed by 2 local government electors, that are listed on the 3 March electoral register. The electors must be registered within the ward (or parish, if the parish is not warded) you are standing for election in.

Electoral Services can provide you with the subscribers’ elector number, if you can confirm their name and address. Or you can request for a copy of the electoral register for the area you are standing election in, by completing the forms below and send them to Electoral Services.

• Electoral register request form
• Postal and proxy voters request form

You can submit nomination papers from Tuesday 18 March until Wednesday 2 April 2025. This must be on a weekday between 10am and 4pm.

We will accept nomination papers until 8pm on Wednesday 19 March and Wednesday 26 March.

Nomination papers must be delivered in person to a Deputy Returning Officer at:

The Gateway
Gatehouse Road
Aylesbury
HP19 8FF

After we have received and accepted your nomination papers, we will send you a letter confirming that the nomination is valid and give more information about election arrangements.

The counting of votes for Buckinghamshire Council will take place on Friday 2 May 2025 and for parishes on Saturday 3 May. Results will be published here as they are declared.

The spending limit is £960 plus 8p for each local government elector in the ward. The total number of electors will be available here from 3 March.

After the election you must submit a return of election spending and donations received:

Spending return forms for local government elections

Spending return for parish elections

Actual expenses are not reimbursed.

Details of your spending and donations must be reported to the Returning Officer by 5 June for unitary candidates and 29 May for parish candidates, together with a declaration that the return is complete and correct.

Even if there are no expenses, a ‘nil’ return is required. Scanned copies may be sent to [email protected]

Guidance is available via the Electoral Commission website. If you need further help or clarification on the rules surrounding election expenses, please contact the Electoral Commission: [email protected]