Nominations for Parish Council Seats will be accepted ahead of the upcoming Town and Parish Council Elections, which are scheduled to take place on Thursday, 1st May 2025.

The Notice of Election can be found here

Further information regarding these will be added when it becomes available nearer to the time.

The role of a Community Councillor is both varied and rewarding. It enables you to act a spokesperson for those in your community, contribute towards important decisions that affect your area and propose new projects or ideas. As well as influencing change through policy or proposals in full council meetings, there's lots to do 'on the ground,' too: whether it's helping to install our In Bloom or Poppy displays, attending our Men's Breakfast Club or Stay and Play as a volunteer, or helping to organise and execute our annual Community Fun Day. It doesn't matter if you haven't been a Councillor before - an interest in your local community is all that's required. Councillors are elected for a term of 4 years, and in your first year you will have plenty of opportunity for training and development to ensure you are able to get the best our of your role.

If you live or work locally, and you think you'd like to be a Community Councillor, read on to understand how to become a candidate in the upcoming elections.

Before starting the process of standing for election, potential candidates need to be confident that they meet all of the requirements. Click on the links below to find out more.

• Who does what at a parish council election and how to contact them
• When do you officially become a candidate?
• Who is responsible for candidate spending?
• Qualifications and disqualifications for standing for election
• Appointing your postal voting, polling and counting agents

If you are interested in joining Far Cotton and Delapre Community Council and standing for election you will need to complete a nomination form which you can download here

To become nominated as a candidate at a parish council election in England, you need to submit a completed set of nomination papers to the place fixed by the Returning Officer by 4pm, 19 working days before the poll.

This deadline is set out in law and cannot be changed for any reason.

The start date from which you will be able to submit nomination papers, as well as the times and place for delivery, will be set out in the notice of election published by the local Returning Officer.

There are three nomination papers that you must submit to make your nomination valid:

• The nomination form
• A home address form
• Your consent to nomination

Due to expected numbers, West Northamptonshire Council will be running an appointment system for the submission of nomination papers. Appointments are 15-minute slots and can be booked by emailing ReturningOfficer@westnorthants.gov.uk with your name, date and time you'd like to come in and a contact telephone number or calling the Elections Team on 01604 526130. A member of the team will then contact you to arrange a date and time. You are welcome to just "turn up" at any of the locations during the dates and times given, however you may be required to wait until an officer is free to take your nomination paper and process it.

Your local appointments will be held in the following location:

The Guildhall, One Stop Shop, Northampton

Available appointment times are as follows:

17 March - 9am – 4.30pm

18 March - 9am – 4.30pm

19 March - 9am – 4.30pm

20 March - 9am – 7pm

21 March - 9am – 4.30pm

24 March - 9am – 7pm

25 March - 9am – 4.30pm

26 March - 9am – 7pm

27 March - 9am – 4.30pm

28 March - 9am – 4.30pm

31 March - 9am – 7pm

1 April - 9am – 7pm

2 April - 9am – 4pm

Communication

To ensure everyone is kept informed, WNC will be sending information via email – this will include your nomination validity notice (formal receipt of nomination), therefore please ensure that you include your email address. After the close of nominations (2 April) WNC will send out important emails regarding documents that you may need to complete however, if you are a Candidate with an Agent WNC ask that you confer with your Agent to ensure no duplicated requests or submissions are sent to them.

Electoral Registers

A register request form is attached this will need to be completed and returned in order to receive a copy of the electoral register, however Parish Clerks should have an up-to-date copy already.

A briefing will take place on 9 April for those candidates that are in contested areas. The briefing will cover arrangements for the count, code of conduct and postal voting.

An email will be sent to all candidates of contested areas after 2 April with a link to the Teams event, this will be recorded and added to the Elections 2025 webpage.

Count

The parish counts will take place at Benham Sports Centre, Kings Park Road, Northampton NN3 6LL on Saturday 3 May 2025, further details will come out in the email you receive after close of nominations.