Elections will go ahead in Eastbourne this year despite Covid-19

Residents will be voting to elect members to East Sussex County Council and also the Sussex police and crime commissioner.

There was a question mark over whether the elections would take place due to the pandemic but the government announced last week voting would go ahead on Thursday May 6.

All the county council is up for election and current police and crime commissioner Katy Bourne is expected to stand again to defend her seat.

Eastbourne council leader David Tutt, who is also a county councillor, said, “This week the government announced that the elections planned for May – in our case those for the county council and police and crime commissioner – will go ahead.

“Due to the pandemic, it is not currently clear just how easy this will be.

“Political parties have not been allowed to deliver literature recently due to the lockdown and so getting their messages across will be more difficult than usual.

“These elections are however important and with uncertainty over the safety of going out it could be sensible to apply for a postal vote.

“Anyone can do this and details of how to apply can be found at www.gov.uk or people can contact the electoral registration officer on 410000 for more information.

“Whichever candidate people might consider voting for I would urge them to take part and vote. Democracy is a precious part of the make-up

of our country and you only need to look at places where it does not exist to understand the risk of losing it.”