Knutton Village

11/10/2026

Does anyone know the origin of the name Wammy? This is what I've found so far.

Nobody knows when the name started.

11/10/2026

🏗️ What's happening to investment in Newcastle town centre?

Walk through town and you'll see cranes and hoardings everywhere. So who's paying for it, what's being built, and what has changed since Reform took over in May? 👇

💷 Where the money came from

The regeneration is worth around £85 million, and almost all of it was secured before Reform took control of the borough council:

• £11m from the government's Future High Streets Fund, awarded in 2021 and now fully spent

• £23.6m from the government's Town Deal for Newcastle

• £18.94m from Homes England, the government's housing agency, awarded in January 2026

• Around £80m of investment by the council itself

The previous council admitted that Newcastle had never had any real government grant funding before 2020.

🏢 What's being built

Three town centre sites are being transformed by developer Capital&Centric, bringing 328 new homes plus shops and businesses:

• Astley Place )the old York Place shopping centre): apartments with shops, bars and cafés on the ground floor, with the first residents due in early 2027

• Karparc (the old Midway car park): around 110 apartments, the first conversion of a multi-storey car park into homes in the country, due to finish by summer 2027

• Rye Park (the Ryecroft site): family homes, apartments, an aparthotel and a new urban park, due by the end of 2027

🏘️ Here in Knutton

Knutton has its own £3.5m share of the Town Deal, to "put the heart back into Knutton":

• The Newcastle Enterprise Centre on High Street has been extended ✅

• New changing rooms at the Wammy are now used by Newcastle Town FC ✅

• New homes are being built on the former community centre site, including 39 social rented apartments and bungalows for over-55s, due to finish in November 2026

• A new village hall, with £1m of Town Deal money set aside, is still waiting. The council says it needs a community group to run it.

❓ What is Reform doing to get Knutton's village hall built?

⚠️ What has changed under Reform

• Nothing new has been added yet. The council leader, Jonathan Gullis, has written to the government asking for future Pride in Place funding, but the projects under way were all secured by the previous council.

• A £2.79m government grant could be lost.

Reform has scrapped the low-carbon heating upgrade at Jubilee2, the town centre leisure centre, which was funded by a government grant of up to £2.79m. The Conservative opposition leader has asked whether that money will now have to be paid back.

• Walking away from the body that helped plan Knutton's regeneration. The Knutton masterplan was funded by One Public Estate, a programme run jointly by the government and the Local Government Association. Reform is pulling the council out of the LGA to save up to £17,200 a year.

• Questions over the Green Belt. Reform campaigned locally against Green Belt development. Gullis now holds the planning brief, and according to openDemocracy he works for a lobbying firm whose clients include a developer planning a huge employment site on Green Belt land in the borough. He declared an interest and stayed out of the key Local Plan meeting.

To be fair, Reform hasn't cancelled any of the town centre schemes, and the work is carrying on.

But the money and the plans came from before May. The question is what Reform will add, and whether Knutton will finally get its village hall.

What would you like to see in the town centre and in Knutton? Tell us below 👇

Follow HOPE not hate and Reform Watch for more on Reform in power.

Investigative and movement-focused journalism at the nexus of gender, geopolitics, migration, technology and rights.

11/10/2026

🚨 Reform UK promised to clean up politics. Here's their sleaze file.

Farage says Reform is the party to "drain the swamp". So here's every investigation and allegation about Reform's MPs, councillors and party money that I could find, how much money is involved, and where it came from 👇

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💷 PART ONE: MONEY AND SLEAZE
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💰 1. Farage: the £5 million "gift"

💷 £5,000,000 from Christopher Harborne, a Thailand-based crypto billionaire and Reform donor.

Parliament's standards watchdog opened an investigation in May 2026 into why Farage didn't declare the money when he became an MP. Farage resigned his seat in July, which paused the investigation. He won the Clacton by-election in August, and the investigation has resumed. Farage says the money paid for his security and that no rules were broken.

✅ 2. Farage: found guilty of 17 breaches of the MPs' code (proven)

💷 £384,064 in outside earnings declared late, including payments from GB News, Direct Bullion (£91,200), Cameo, Google and Elon Musk's X.

The standards watchdog ruled that Farage broke the rules 17 times by missing the 28-day deadline to declare his earnings. It accepted the breaches were "inadvertent" and caused by staffing problems, and Farage apologised. He also admitted failing to declare a trip to Florida where he spoke at a fundraiser for Donald Trump.

🏠 3. Farage: staff, security and a townhouse from a convicted fraudster

💷 Amount not disclosed. Farage declared only about £9,200 from this source.

The Sunday Times reported that George Cottrell paid three staff to work on Farage's social media, paid for his security, and let him use a five-storey Georgian townhouse near Buckingham Palace. Cottrell pleaded guilty to wire fraud in the US in 2017. The Lib Dems and Conservatives have complained to the standards watchdog. Farage denies wrongdoing and says he's considering legal action. Reform's Robert Jenrick confirmed Cottrell paid for the security and staff, but said it was before Farage became an MP.

🎣 4. Farage: the fishing boat and US trips

In 2025 the standards watchdog looked into Farage's claim that he owns a commercial fishing boat. It found the boat belongs to his company and that he says he receives no income from it. A separate complaint by the Good Law Project said he failed to declare US hotels, travel and media support from Capital HQ, a firm with links to Trump's circle. I found no confirmation that this was formally investigated.

🚔 5. Police investigating £1 million in donations to Reform UK

💷 £1,000,000 in four £250,000 payments, made weeks before the 2024 general election.

The Met Police are investigating whether impermissible donations were concealed. Fiona Cottrell, George's mother, gave £500,000 directly to Reform. She also paid £1m into Britain Means Business, a company solely owned by Reform deputy leader Richard Tice, which then passed £500,000 on to Reform. The Guardian reported that George Cottrell transferred more than $2m to his mother shortly before she made the donations. Fiona and George Cottrell have been interviewed under caution, but nobody has been arrested. Reform says it followed all the rules, and Tice calls the investigation a "smear campaign".

🎥 6. Caught on camera: offering a way around the ban on foreign donations

💷 £32,500 of opinion polling paid for by a supposed foreign donor, plus an offer of £500,000 more.

In September 2026, undercover filming by Channel 4 News appeared to show two senior Farage aides suggesting ways for an American donor to fund Reform, which would be illegal. That included routing £500,000 through his UK-based son. Both aides stood down, and the Met Police opened a criminal investigation. Reform denies wrongdoing.

🇮🇱 7. Richard Tice: an undeclared trip

💷 A trip to Israel, including flights and hotels, paid for by Reform Friends of Israel.

Parliament's standards watchdog is investigating whether Tice should have declared the trip before speaking in a debate on Israeli influence. Tice says the complaint came from an "anti-Israel lobby group". Separately, the watchdog chose not to investigate an £80,000 loan to Tice from George Cottrell.

🧾 8. Richard Tice: the tax claims

In spring 2026 the Sunday Times ran three weeks of reports on Tice's tax affairs:

➡️ About £600,000 avoided. The paper reported that Tice avoided nearly £600,000 in corporation tax after his property company obtained a rare legal tax status.

➡️ About £120,000 in unpaid tax on dividends. A tax expert estimated that his company, Quidnet REIT, should have paid around £120,000 in tax on dividends paid to Tice and his offshore trust in Jersey. Reform called it a "minor administrative error" and says Tice "has paid all tax due".

➡️ Almost £100,000 in unpaid corporation tax. Four shell companies allegedly paid no tax on profits between 2020 and 2022, benefiting Tice's investment firm, which donated £1.1m to Reform.

Tice calls the reports a "smear campaign" with "wrong numbers, wrong dates, wrong assumptions", and says they're the subject of legal action. The Lib Dems have called on HMRC to investigate. HMRC doesn't say who it is investigating.

🦠 9. James McMurdock: £70,000 in Covid loans

💷 £70,000 in taxpayer-backed Covid bounce back loans.
The Sunday Times reported that two businesses linked to the Reform MP took out the loans, including the maximum £50,000 for a company with no employees. McMurdock left Reform and now sits as an independent. He says all his business dealings were legal.

🇷🇺 10. Nathan Gill, Reform's former leader in Wales: jailed for bribery

💷 At least £40,000, according to police estimates, paid by pro-Russian Ukrainian politician Oleg Voloshyn. The court heard the money came from Viktor Medvedchuk, a close ally of Vladimir Putin.

Gill was jailed for 10½ years in November 2025 for taking bribes to make pro-Russian statements in the European Parliament. The bribes were paid while he was a Brexit Party MEP, under Farage's leadership. In 2021, he led Reform in Wales. In September 2026, a court ordered him to pay back £22,592. Reform called his actions "treasonous". Police say they are still investigating whether anyone else committed offences.

📝 11. Councillors and election rules

• Ryan Coogan, Reform group leader on Cambridgeshire County Council, was arrested in September 2026 on suspicion of making false statements on his nomination papers. He is on bail and says he hasn't been told what the allegation is.

• Joseph Boam, a Leicestershire councillor, faced a police assessment for alleged "treating" voters after parking a free ice cream van near a polling station with a sign saying "free 4 real Brits".

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⚖️ PART TWO: CONDUCT AND CRIMINAL CASES
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🏛️ Staffordshire County Council, our own council

• Leader Ian Cooper quit in December 2025 after a Reform probe into alleged racist social media posts, and his party membership was revoked.

• His successor, Chris Large, faced a council standards inquiry into racist TikTok posts, which he denies writing. He has left Reform.

• Cabinet member Peter Mason was the subject of complaints over derogatory posts about Black women. No action was taken because the posts were made before he was elected.

• Lynn Dean, the former Knutton borough councillor, was suspended by Reform over racist posts linked to an undisclosed social media account.

🔴 Leicestershire County Council

The council's own Reform leader told party HQ there had been 79 complaints about Reform councillors within a year, 40 of them about Joseph Boam.

🚔 Arrests and convictions

• Daniel Taylor, a Kent county councillor, was jailed for 12 months in February 2026 for controlling and coercive behaviour towards his wife. Reform expelled him after he pleaded guilty.

• Carl Creaney, a Walsall councillor, was arrested in June 2026 following a report of harassment. He says he has nothing to hide.

• Dan Thomas, Reform's leader in Wales, stepped down in September 2026 after being arrested on suspicion of assault and controlling or coercive behaviour. He says he was released without charge.

• Rupert Lowe, a Reform MP, was reported to police by his own party in 2025 over alleged threats against party chair Zia Yusuf. Prosecutors decided not to charge him because of insufficient evidence. Lowe left Reform and now leads Restore Britain.

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⚖️ TO BE FAIR

• Allegations that Farage's 2024 Clacton campaign overspent couldn't be investigated by police because the time limit had passed. The Electoral Commission found no evidence of undeclared spending.

• An investigation or newspaper allegation is not proof that anyone broke the rules. Everyone above denies wrongdoing, except where a conviction, guilty plea or ruling is noted.

💷 The total: more than £6.7 million is under investigation, covered by proven breaches, or alleged as unpaid tax. On top of that, the Sunday Times says Tice avoided around £600,000 in tax, and a further £500,000 was offered on camera.

Reform says it's the party to clean up Westminster. Does this look like a clean party to you? 👇

Follow HOPE not hate and Reform Watch for more on Reform's record.

11/10/2026

🌍 Reform scrapped our climate emergency. Here's what it could cost Staffordshire.

Reform UK has cancelled the climate emergency declarations at both of our councils. In October 2025, Staffordshire County Council voted to rescind its 2019 declaration and drop its net zero targets. Newcastle-under-Lyme followed in July 2026, scrapping its Net Zero by 2030 target too. Reform calls it "virtue signalling". Here's what's at stake 👇

📋 What else has Reform cancelled so far

This is what's been made public, but more is coming.

Newcastle-under-Lyme Borough Council

• Low-carbon heating at Jubilee2, the council's highest-polluting building. The previous council had won a government grant of up to £2.79m for heat pumps and solar heating there. Reform says the boiler is "perfectly good", but Conservative leader Simon Tagg says officers advised that the 14-year-old boiler was due for replacement. He has asked whether the grant will now have to be paid back.

• Environmental upgrades at Keele Cemetery, Bradwell Crematorium and Knutton depot, right here in our village

• Membership of the Local Government Association

Staffordshire County Council

• The joint electric car charging scheme with other Midlands councils. The county pulled out but kept its £4.6m to spend on car park charging hubs.

• Savings from the mobile library service and contracts with voluntary organisations, part of a £2.67m efficiency review. The Far-Right are not keen on books...

💷 The saving is tiny

When Farage told the county's climate staff to "go look for another job", analysis showed those officers cost £153,000 a year. That's 0.02% of the council's £735m budget.

💡 Climate action was saving us money

After the 2019 declaration, the county council moved to green energy and LED street lights. Replacing half of the county's 94,000 street lights with LEDs was set to save around £1.5m a year on energy bills, about ten times the cost of the climate officers. The council cut its carbon emissions by more than half.

🌊 Flooding is getting worse, and we're in the firing line

More than 54,000 Staffordshire properties are at risk of surface water flooding, ranking the county 9th in England. Newcastle-under-Lyme is one of the highest-risk areas. Repairing a flooded home costs more than £30,000 on average, and the council's own plan warns flooding will get worse and happen more often as the climate changes. The legal duties to manage flooding remain, but Reform has dropped the council's dedicated climate cabinet job.

🏭 Green jobs are here in North Staffordshire

• Keele University's Smart Energy Network, backed by both our councils, has helped more than 250 local businesses save energy or develop green products. The wider Keele Deal is estimated to have created 800 jobs.

• Clean-tech firm GivEnergy has invested in a Newcastle-under-Lyme HQ and a planned start-up hub that could bring hundreds of green jobs.

Turning our backs on net zero risks telling investors like these that Staffordshire isn't interested.

🚛 Gullis's £6.2m bin lorry "saving" doesn't add up

Jonathan Gullis says scrapping electric bin lorries saved £6.2m. Here's why that's misleading:

➡️ Two-thirds of it was never in the budget. £4.2m is an estimated cost for charging points, and the council's own press release admits this money had not been budgeted. You can't save money you were never going to spend from an existing budget.

➡️ The real figure was £2.19m over five years (plus £349,000 in financing costs), which is what the council itself said in June 2026.

➡️ It only counts one side of the ledger. Electric lorries cost more to buy but less to run. The council will now be buying diesel for the next decade, and that cost isn't subtracted.

➡️ The number keeps growing: £2m in June, £6.2m in July, and £10.5m by August once other cancelled projects were added. Tagg called the savings "fantasy-driven", pointing out that much of the spending wouldn't have been needed until the mid-2030s.

🚜 Solar on county farms: the food security claim doesn't stack up

Reform has blocked large solar farms and battery storage on the council's 6,500-acre county farms estate, citing food security. The evidence doesn't back that up. Even the government's plans to expand solar would cover only around 0.3% of UK land, and sheep can still graze between the panels. Solar can also give farmers a steady extra income.

The weather won't stop changing because Reform voted against the word "emergency". Do you think scrapping it was the right call? 👇

Follow Reform Watch for more on Reform in power.

11/10/2026

🏆 Reform's "first 100 days": borrowed achievements, still uncorrected

In October 2025, Reform UK's leadership at Staffordshire County Council published a report celebrating its first 100 days in charge. Its two headline "successes" were the work of the council before Reform took over.

1️⃣ “Good" rating for adult social care

Care Quality Commission (CQC) inspectors visited in February 2025, three months before Reform was elected. The CQC's own report says that at the time of the assessment, the council was under Conservative control. The credit belongs to the social care staff and NHS partners who earned it.

2️⃣ Screen Staffordshire, the county's film office

The previous Conservative administration launched the project in April 2024 and committed £300,000 to it. Its manager was appointed in December 2024, and it was already supporting film and TV productions from January 2025. Reform held the official launch event in June 2025 and then counted the whole thing as a Reform success.

✏️ Was the report corrected?

At a scrutiny meeting, opposition leader Philip White called the report misleading and asked for it to be amended. Then finance chief Chris Large said Reform would "look at the document". A year on, the report on the council's website still carries both claims, with no correction.

Reform’s two biggest boasts were somebody else's work, and Reform has never put the record straight.

What has Reform actually delivered for Staffordshire since? Tell us below 👇

Follow Reform Watch for more on Reform in power.

Tracking Reform UK officials and holding them accountable for their actions and statements.

11/10/2026

📢 What has Reform UK done for Knutton since taking over our councils?

Reform UK has run Staffordshire County Council since May 2025 and Newcastle-under-Lyme Borough Council since May this year. Here's what has been reported so far 👇

🏘️ Close to home in Knutton

Lynn Dean won Knutton for Reform in a May 2025 by-election, becoming the borough's first Reform councillor. In March, HOPE not hate published racist posts it linked to an X account of hers. Reform suspended her, saying she hadn't disclosed the account during vetting. She quit her Knutton seat weeks before the May election, but still sits on the county council (May Bank & Wolstanton) as an independent.

🏛️ Staffordshire County Council

• Three Reform leaders since December. Ian Cooper quit after a probe into alleged racist social media posts. His successor, Chris Large, stood down citing a bereavement. It then emerged he faced a council inquiry into racist TikTok posts, which he denies writing. He has since left Reform.

• Cabinet member Peter Mason apologised for past posts that referred to Black women in derogatory terms and called police "British hating scum". Later he told a council meeting he would not apologise for the beliefs he had been trying to express.

• Reform councillors voted down a motion to condemn racism and let party leaders remove councillors proven to have acted in a racist way from council roles. It could have cost Mason his cabinet job.

➡️ Council leader Martin Murray said existing complaints processes and laws were enough, and that the new powers would be undemocratic. He also questioned whether the motion was really about racism or political point-scoring.

➡️ But those existing processes took no action on Mason, because his posts were made before he was elected. A Green councillor said complaints he made in October were still waiting for a hearing.

• Opposition councillors say letters from Nigel Farage promised to root out waste and cut council tax. Instead, Reform raised it by 3.99%, which is £64.71 more a year for a Band D home.

• Reform's "first 100 days" report took credit for things achieved before it took over, such as adult social care's "Good" CQC rating.

🏰 Newcastle-under-Lyme Borough Council

• openDemocracy reported that council leader Jonathan Gullis, who also holds the planning brief, works for a lobbying firm. Its clients include a developer planning a huge site on Green Belt land in the borough. He declared an interest and stayed out of the key Local Plan meeting, but residents are entitled to ask questions.

• The council is leaving the Local Government Association (LGA). Gullis called it a cosy, self-serving establishment and attacked its Westminster office's "rooftop terrace". But:

➡️ the saving is up to £17,200 a year, which is about 0.1% of the council's budget

➡️ the LGA says it has no rooftop bar

➡️ the LGA was helping the council with Walleys Quarry

➡️ Reform has its own group office inside the LGA, which trains Reform councillors

➡️ the LGA says every £1 councils pay in brings in £7 of extra funding for local government

➡️ closer to home, Chesterton's Cross Street estate received a £414,352 regeneration grant in 2021 through One Public Estate, a programme the LGA runs with government. That's about 24 years' worth of the fees Gullis wants to save.

Gullis also said Reform wants bodies like the LGA abolished. That sounds more like party politics than saving us money.

Reform promised to do politics differently. So far, we've had scandals, a council tax rise and gestures.

Have you noticed any difference since Reform took over? Let us know below 👇

Follow Reform Watch for more on Reform in power.

Tracking Reform UK officials and holding them accountable for their actions and statements.

11/10/2026

Knutton in 2026 – the year so far 🏡

It's been a busy year for our village, so here's a round-up of what's been happening.

🗳️ New councillor

In late March, campaign group Hope Not Hate published social media posts it said were racist, from an account it linked to Knutton's councillor Lynn Dean. Reform UK suspended her, saying she hadn't disclosed the account when the party vetted her. Lynn said she had already left the party before the suspension. She resigned her Knutton seat on 1 April, though she is still an independent county councillor for May Bank and Wolstanton.

In the May elections, Reform UK's Graham Shaw won the seat with 359 votes, ahead of Labour on 129 and the Conservatives on 54.

🏗️ Village regeneration

Work on the plans to "put the heart back into Knutton" has moved on this year:

• Aspire Housing has finished the new homes on High Street, and building is well under way on the old community centre site. Aspire is building 75 new homes in the village altogether.

• The Newcastle Enterprise Centre extension is complete, with new business units available from the end of July.

• The village hall plans have changed. It's now set to include business units plus a community space for hire, and a tenant has been lined up.

• The new football changing rooms at the Wammy are in use.

💷 Where the money comes from

Most of it comes from the government's Town Deal programme. Newcastle-under-Lyme Borough Council was given £23.6 million for regeneration projects across the borough. £3.5 million of that is set aside for Knutton. It's paying to clear and prepare land for the new homes, for the changing rooms, and for £1 million towards the village hall.

The £1.6 million Enterprise Centre extension was paid for by £1.14 million of Town Deal money plus £440,000 from Staffordshire County Council. Aspire Housing is paying for the homes themselves, on land the Town Deal helped get ready to build on.

The current Labour government, led since July by Prime Minister Andy Burnham, has given councils until March 2028 to finish spending the money.

Our MP is Adam Jogee (Labour), who has represented Newcastle-under-Lyme since July 2024.

🔄 Council changes ahead

In July, the Labour government confirmed that Newcastle-under-Lyme Borough Council, Stoke-on-Trent Staffordshire County Council and Staffordshire Moorlands District Council will merge. Newcastle Borough Council is due to close in April 2028.

👃 Walleys Quarry

Good news on the smell front. The council has had only nine odour complaints so far this year, compared with more than 1,800 in 2025. A new cross-party council group started meeting in September to keep an eye on the site. Still smelling something? Report it to the Environment Agency on 0800 807060.

🧹 Civic Pride day

Thanks to everyone who joined the council, Aspire Housing and Staffordshire Police for the Civic Pride day in May.

🔧 Knutton Lane depot

The council has announced £600,000 of improvements to its depot on Knutton Lane.

Got news for the page? Comment below or send us a message 👇

10/10/2026

📢 Local Council Update: Knutton Representation, By-Election Costs & National Context

We wanted to share an update with residents regarding local council representation on Newcastle-under-Lyme Borough Council.

What Happened in Knutton?

Former Knutton ward councillor Lynn Dean resigned her council seat following her suspension by Reform UK. Her suspension came after an investigation by campaign group Hope Not Hate uncovered historical social media posts—including derogatory comments directed at Muslims and minority groups—which the party deemed unacceptable.

Other Local Changes: The Christine Duffy Resignation

In addition to Lynn Dean, another local Reform UK councillor stepped down under unusual circumstances:

* Christine Duffy (Town Ward): Ms. Duffy originally complained that she had "received no training" for her councillor role. In August, she attempted to resign by submitting a resignation letter—however, she accidentally hand-delivered it to Kidsgrove Town Council, where she was not an elected member, rather than Newcastle-under-Lyme Borough Council.

* By-Election Result: After formally resigning from the borough council to prioritise her health, a by-election was held for Town ward, resulting in Labour taking the seat from Reform UK.

The Wider Picture: Local & National Tracker Figures

These local departures reflect a broader national pattern detailed in recent political monitoring by analyst Mark Pack and campaign group Best For Britain:

* The "1 Every 3 Days" Rate: Trackers reveal that Reform UK has been losing an average of one councillor every three days since the local elections due to resignations, suspensions, vetting failures, and internal disputes.

* Total Councillor Departures: More than 50 councillors elected in or after May have already left, been suspended, or resigned. Over 40 additional Reform councillors elected prior to May have also departed the party.

* Primary Departure Reasons: Nationally, councillor losses have been driven by social media vetting scandals (e.g. historical far-right or offensive posts), criminal charges/convictions (including weapons offences, drink-driving, and assault), group walkouts over internal bullying/toxic culture, administrative errors, and defections to other groups like Restore Britain.

* Parliamentary Level: At the MP level, two MPs elected under the party banner left the parliamentary party: Rupert Lowe was suspended following internal disputes, while James McMurdock resigned the whip pending an investigation into £70,000 in government Bounce Back Covid loans taken out via his private businesses.

Financial Investigations Involving Reform UK Leadership

Party leadership figures and campaign finances have also faced high-profile investigations regarding significant sums:

* Nigel Farage (Party Leader): Investigated by the Parliamentary Standards Commissioner regarding an undeclared £5 million ($6.7m) gift/payment received from billionaire crypto investor and Reform donor Christopher Harborne.

* Richard Tice (Deputy Leader): Referred to the Parliamentary Standards Watchdog over an undeclared £80,000 loan received from former Farage aide George Cottrell linked to property business transactions involving his company, Tisun.

* Foreign Funding Inquiries: Regulatory probes were triggered following undercover reporting on attempts by figures linked to the party to solicit foreign funding—specifically involving proposed corporate donations of £50,000 a month routed via an offshore US entity.

The Financial Impact on Local Taxpayers (By-Election Costs)

Unscheduled council by-elections must be funded directly by Newcastle-under-Lyme Borough Council out of local taxpayer funds.

* Cost Per By-Election: Running a single local borough ward by-election typically costs the council between £10,000 and £15,000 to cover polling station venues, printing ballot papers, staffing, and counting costs.

* Combined Local Cost: Multiple unexpected by-elections across local wards mean tens of thousands of pounds from the local council budget are required to cover these extra votes.