Conservative council chiefs must accept the simultaneous nature of next year's local and European polls, despite concerns voters might view the elections as a referendum on Europe, ministers have advised.

The reaction follow fears raised recently by the Conservative Councillors Association (CCA) that the party faces a potential drubbing in 2014's metropolitan and London borough elections from a UKIP inspired anti-EU bandwagon.

The CCA had lobbied ministers to hold local votes on a separate date to the Euro-polls set for 22 May.

But speaking to The MJ at the Local Government Association's annual conference in Manchester last week, Chloe Smith, minister for political and constitutional reform at the Cabinet Office, said councillors must be mindful of the costs of running elections during a time of austerity.

‘The date has now been announced and fixed,' Ms Smith said.  ‘When the DCLG were doing the consultation on it, actually two thirds of the people who came back were in favour of making the change.'

‘I think it does make sense, as a very practical and sensible thing to do,' Ms Smith added. 

‘Otherwise you'd be faced with two elections within three weeks, which I think would be a little bit hard for the taxpayer to appreciate.'