2026 Cheltenham Borough Council election
2026 English local election
The 2026 Cheltenham Borough Council election was held on 7 May 2026, alongside the other local elections across the United Kingdom held on the same day, to elect 20 of 40 members of Cheltenham Borough Council in Gloucestershire, England.
The Liberal Democrats retained their majority on the council at this election.
Summary
Background
In 2024, the Liberal Democrats retained majority control of the council. In January 2026, the council asked for the election to be postponed pending local government reorganisation. This was against the wishes of the national Leader of the Liberal Democrats, Ed Davey. However it was rescheduled on 16 February 2026.
Retiring councillors
Election result
The Liberal Democrats retained control of Cheltenham Borough Council, winning 17 of the 20 seats contested. The Green Party won two seats, while Reform UK won one seat. The election had a turnout of 44%.
Reform UK won its first seat on Cheltenham Borough Council, with Callum James Eldridge winning Hesters Way by 16 votes from Liberal Democrat candidate Benjamin Botchway.
“2026 Cheltenham Borough Council election” enters the record as 2026 English local election. Crown Archives preserves that source wording while asking what Cheltenham, Borough and Council can confirm, complicate or overturn.
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Contemporary correspondence, administrative files and participant testimony can test how later narratives organized the event or institution. The source revision retrieved here is dated Sep 13, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q138335520. None of the 0 selected statements returned an explicit reference. The first chronological checks are 2026 and 2024.
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