The government has paused Hertfordshire's four-council plan, so May 2027 is an ordinary borough election again. The council's own page still says otherwise.

Watford Borough Council has been told to stop preparing for its own abolition. The government paused local government reorganisation across England on Monday 7 September, and Hertfordshire’s plan to replace eleven councils with four is one of the decisions now under review.

The town’s elected mayor, Peter Taylor, called the pause “incredibly frustrating” in a statement issued on Tuesday.

“Watford and our partner councils have put a huge amount of work and resource into preparing for the new system while ensuring that services for residents aren’t disrupted,” he said. “This pause creates uncertainty about the future of local government and seriously risks undermining the efforts of everyone involved.”

What the government actually did

Jim McMahon, the Minister for Local Government, Devolution and Regional Growth, wrote to council leaders on 7 September. The letter does two separate things.

It withdraws the decisions taken in March for four areas: Essex with Southend-on-Sea and Thurrock, Hampshire with the Isle of Wight, Portsmouth and Southampton, Norfolk, and Suffolk. Hertfordshire is not one of them.

It then announces a review that covers everything else. “The review, which I will lead, will look at the programme as a whole and this will include reviewing the 14 decisions made in July,” the letter says. Hertfordshire’s decision was made on 16 July, so it is in that group. Only East and West Surrey are outside the process, because those councils are already established in law.

The instruction to councils is blunt. “Until this review has concluded, I am asking you, together with your partners, to cease work on implementing the decisions that were announced in July.” The minister says this “reduces the risk of nugatory work if, after further review, we decide to change course”.

No reporting date is given. The letter promises only that “next steps are communicated early and clearly to the sector”.

Your next council election has changed

This is the part that reaches residents first.

Under the July decision, the vote in May 2027 was going to be for a shadow South West Hertfordshire Council, and it would have replaced any borough election due that month. The minister’s letter reverses that: “elections scheduled to take place in May 2027 will go ahead to existing council boundaries”.

Angie Ridgwell, the senior responsible officer for the Hertfordshire reorganisation programme, confirmed it for all eleven Hertfordshire councils in a statement published on North Herts Council’s website on 8 September. “The Government has confirmed that the elections to the Shadow Authorities will not take place in May 2027,” she said. “Local authorities will continue with their usual cycle of local elections for 2027.”

Watford’s usual cycle puts a borough election in that slot. The council’s own types of elections page says the borough has 36 councillors, three for each of its twelve wards, and that “the election of borough councillors is normally held on the first Thursday in May each year with exception of years when scheduled county councillor elections are held”. Hertfordshire County Council elections run every four years and the last was on 1 May 2025, so none falls in 2027.

The council’s own election page still says the opposite

Two days after the announcement, and a day after its own mayor responded to it, Watford Borough Council’s upcoming elections page still told residents something different. Checked on 9 September, it read:

The next elections are likely to be held in May 2027. This is expected to be to elect councillors to the new Shadow Authority of the new unitary council, which is due to come into effect on 1st April 2028.

That is the timetable the government has just suspended. The same set of pages also states that “the last mayoral election was held 5 May 2022”, although the council itself ran one on 7 May 2026 and published the result.

The mayoralty was cut short to fit a date that is now in doubt

Watford is one of only a handful of English councils with a directly elected mayor, and the reorganisation was going to end that: the new authority was to have a leader chosen by councillors instead.

The council shortened the mayoral term to match. When Watford voted on 7 May 2026, the council’s own announcement said residents were choosing who should serve “for the next 2 years” rather than the usual four. Peter Taylor was re-elected with 14,583 of 27,768 votes, a share of 52.5 per cent, on a turnout of 37.17 per cent.

Two years from May 2026 runs to May 2028. The council was to be abolished on 1 April 2028, just before that term ended. With the abolition date now under review, nothing has been published about what happens to the mayoralty if the timetable slips. We could find no statement on it from the council or the government.

What was on the table

Timeline from the government's decision on 16 July 2026 to the pause announced on 7 September 2026, with the May 2027 and April 2028 milestones marked as no longer applying
The route from July's decision to the pause. The last two milestones were set by a decision that is now being reviewed.
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The plan the review is examining would have merged Watford Borough Council with Three Rivers District Council and Hertsmere Borough Council. The government’s implementation letter of 21 July set out the detail:

  • the new authority is legally named South West Hertfordshire Council
  • it would have 79 councillors
  • it would go live on 1 April 2028
  • each new Hertfordshire unitary would get £900,000 towards transition costs

None of that is cancelled. All of it is on hold.

What it means for you

Nothing about your services changes. Watford Borough Council still collects the bins, issues the parking permits, decides the planning applications and sets its share of the council tax. It was going to keep doing all of that until March 2028 anyway.

Expect a borough election next May, not a shadow one. On the government’s own instruction the May 2027 poll goes ahead on existing boundaries. Check your registration is current rather than waiting until the spring.

Committee papers written before 7 September are now out of date. Any council or county report that leans on the April 2028 abolition date to justify a decision was written under a timetable that has been suspended. Our Watford planning news page follows the applications and decisions this affects, and council tax bands explains who charges what today.

There is no deadline to watch. The review has no published reporting date. We will report its outcome when it lands.

Frequently asked questions

Is Watford Borough Council still being abolished?

Not for now. The decision to replace it with South West Hertfordshire Council was taken on 16 July 2026, and on 7 September 2026 the government put that decision under review and told councils to stop implementation work. It has not been cancelled, and no new date has been published.

Who runs Watford’s services now?

Watford Borough Council, exactly as before, for bins, planning, parking, housing and licensing. Hertfordshire County Council still runs the roads, schools and social care. The pause changes none of that.

When is the next Watford council election?

May 2027. Under the July decision it would have been an election to a shadow unitary council; the government’s letter of 7 September says elections scheduled for that month “will go ahead to existing council boundaries”, so it is an ordinary borough election.

Does Watford still have an elected mayor?

Yes. Peter Taylor was re-elected on 7 May 2026 for a two-year term, shortened because the council was due to be abolished in April 2028. Nothing has been published about what happens to the mayoralty now that date is under review.

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