The Government would ‘carefully consider' any requests to postpone elections from the three council areas vying for local government reorganisation, a minister said yesterday.

As Somerset, Cumbria and North Yorkshire race towards the deadline of 9 December to submit their proposals on unitarisation, local government minister Kelly Tollhurst told Parliament: ‘The Secretary of State has the power to postpone local elections. We recognise that, when making proposals, councils may request that the May 2021 local elections in the area be postponed for a year.'