Ten electors forced a poll instead of a co-option. Billericay East votes on 22 October, and nomination papers must be in by 4pm on Friday 25 September.

Billericay East Ward will elect a town councillor on Thursday 22 October, and anyone who wants to stand has until 4pm this Friday, 25 September, to get their papers in.

The seat fell vacant when Councillor Alan Talboys resigned. Billericay Town Council published its notice of casual vacancy on 1 September, signed by the town clerk, Deborah Tonkiss.

That notice set out two possible outcomes, and only one of them involved a vote. It said an election would be held if ten electors of the ward wrote to the Returning Officer at Basildon Council asking for one by Thursday 17 September. If nobody did, the town council would simply fill the seat by co-option.

Ten electors did. The notice of election is dated Thursday 17 September, the day the deadline fell, and is signed by Julian Ellerby as Returning Officer. One parish councillor is to be elected.

The dates that matter

Key dates for the Billericay East Ward by-election: nominations close 4pm on 25 September, registration closes at midnight on 6 October, postal votes at 5pm on 7 October, voter ID and proxy votes at 5pm on 14 October, and the poll is on 22 October.

From the notice of election and the council’s own by-election page:

  • 4pm, Friday 25 September: nomination papers must reach the Returning Officer
  • Midnight, Tuesday 6 October: last day to register to vote
  • 5pm, Wednesday 7 October: new postal vote applications, and changes or cancellations to existing ones
  • 5pm, Wednesday 14 October: applications for a Voter Authority Certificate or an Anonymous Elector’s Document
  • 5pm, Wednesday 14 October: new proxy vote applications
  • 7am to 10pm, Thursday 22 October: polling day
  • 5pm, Thursday 22 October: emergency proxy applications, on grounds arising after 5pm the day before

Nomination papers come from the town clerk at the Chantry Centre, from Electoral Services at the Basildon Centre, or by email to townclerk@billericaytowncouncil.gov.uk. They have to be delivered in person to Electoral Services, St Martin’s Square, Basildon, SS14 1DL, between 10am and 5pm on a weekday.

Photo ID is required at the polling station. If you do not have an accepted form of ID, the free Voter Authority Certificate is the route, and 14 October is the cut-off.

One thing to watch on the council’s page. Its frequently asked questions give the right Voter Authority Certificate deadline of 5pm on 14 October, but describe it as the deadline “for the Wickford Park by-election”. That is a leftover from a previous poll. The date matches the notice of election for Billericay East, and there is no Wickford Park by-election listed.

What the seat is worth

Billericay Town Council has twenty councillors across three wards, East, West and South West. Its own councillor list currently names nineteen of them. Whole-council elections are held every four years, and the next is due in 2028.

The council is the smallest of the three tiers billed to a Billericay household. It runs the Chantry Centre, puts the hanging baskets and the Christmas decorations in the High Street, and has a planning committee that comments on applications in the town. Its next planning meeting is on 29 September and its next full council meeting on 15 October.

A by-election is not how these seats are usually filled. The same council readvertised a casual vacancy in South West Ward on 19 June, inviting applications for co-option by 22 July. Nobody asked for a poll on that one.

What it means for you

Billericay Town Council’s precept adds £26.01 a year to a Band D council tax bill, on top of the county, police, fire and borough charges. That is the smallest line on the bill, and it is the only one this vote decides. Our Basildon council tax bands guide sets out the full parish-by-parish figures.

Three practical points:

  • If you have moved house since the last election, register again. Registration is by address, so a move within Billericay still needs a new application, and the deadline is midnight on 6 October.
  • A postal vote application after 7 October will not arrive in time. Existing postal voters do not need to reapply, but check the address held for you is current.
  • Only electors in East Ward vote. West Ward and South West Ward are not affected. Your poll card will confirm whether you are in the ward and where your polling station is.

Basildon Council says the statement of persons nominated, the notice of poll and the result will all be published on the same by-election page as they become available. We will update this article when the candidate list appears, which should be shortly after Friday’s deadline.

The town council’s planning comments on applications in Billericay are among the things this seat carries a vote on; our running coverage of the applications themselves is on the Basildon planning news page.

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