By-election in Wyboston triggered after mayor stood in two elections cost more than £12k says council

Julie Cox, newly elected councillor for Wyboston Image Bedford Borough Conservative Group

A by-election triggered by Bedford’s mayor standing for the role as well as in a ward election is estimated to have cost taxpayers over £12,000.

The Wyboston by-election had to be held last week as the seat immediately became vacant after May’s local election – as the candidate with the most votes, Tom Wootton, had already been elected as Bedford mayor.

During the mayoral election campaign, mayor Wootton said he was standing as mayor and as a councillor as a consequence of the unexpected death of Stephen Moon (the then Conservative councillor for Great Barford).

If he was successful in both elections he said the Conservatives would have “measured time to find a candidate”.

“I’d rather have it look bad than have somebody who is not going to look after something that has been very, very personal to me,” he said in April.

The Representation of the People Act 1983 states that the cost of local elections are met from the local authority’s budgets.

In May, the Local Democracy Reporting Service asked Bedford Borough Council for the estimated cost to residents for the by-election.

Last week, a Bedford Borough Council spokesperson said: “The current projected cost for the by-election in the Wyboston ward is £12,366.74.”

They added that there may be additional costs.

The three parties who put up candidates for the by-election were asked to comment on its estimated cost.

Neither the Conservatives or the LibDems had a comment to make, Labour did not respond by the time of publication.

Councillor Julie Cox (Conservative) was elected as ward councillor following the by-election, with 63.1 per cent of the vote. This was a fall of nearly 13 percentage points on May’s result.