Your next election

Local election to be held on 7 May 2026

The next local election is scheduled for Thursday, 7 May 2026.

The last local election was held on Thursday, 2 May 2024.

People who run your council are called councillors. They make important decisions, such as how the council budget is spent and which services are prioritised.

Each councillor is elected for a 4-year term of office and there are 3 councillors representing each council ward in the borough. Councillors are elected every year, over a 4-year cycle (with no elections in the fourth year). This means at each election a third of councillors are elected. Upcoming election years are 2026, 2027, 2028, 2030 and on a continued cycle.

Following an electoral boundary review, all 60 councillor seats were contested at the local election in 2022. This meant that electors were able to vote for up to 3 candidates in their ward instead of just one.

At a local election, people will vote to choose who they would like to be their local councillor. The political party with the highest number of councillors usually controls the council and decides how local services are run. Your local councillor will represent your views for the ward (area) you live in.

Election notices

We will add notices to this section as they become available.

Statements of Persons Nominated by ward

Key deadlines

Key dates for the next election are shown in the table.  

Local government election timetable for Thursday, 7 May 2026.
Service area Date
Deadline to register to vote Monday, 20 April 2026
Deadline to submit your application for a postal vote or a postal-proxy vote 5pm on Tuesday, 21 April 2026
Deadline to submit your application to vote by proxy 5pm on Tuesday, 28 April 2026
Deadline to apply for free voter ID 5pm on Tuesday, 28 April 2026
Day of poll 7am-10pm on Thursday, 7 May 2026

More about the next election

Contact Elections Team

Telephone: 0300 303 0345

Address: Elections Team
Governance and Committee Services
Floor 2
Number One Riverside
Smith Street
Rochdale OL16 1XU

Phone:
Monday–Friday, 8.30am–5.30pm

Closed for training Monday 11am–11.30am