2024 Epping Forest District Council election

The 2024 Epping Forest District Council election was held on Thursday 2 May 2024, alongside the other local elections in the United Kingdom held on the same day. All 54 members of Epping Forest District Council in Essex were elected following boundary changes. The council remained under Conservative majority control.

2024 Epping Forest District Council election

← 2023 2 May 2024 (2024-05-02) 2026 →
All 54 seats to Epping Forest District Council 28 seats needed for a majority
First party Second party Third party   Leader Chris Whitbread Ian Allgood Jon Whitehouse Party Conservative Loughton Residents Liberal Democrats Last election 34 seats, 48.3% 13 seats, 0.0% 6 seats, 22.4% Seats before 34 13 5 Seats won 29 13 7 Seat change 5 1 Popular vote 11,326 5,020 4,654 Percentage 38.2% 17.0% 15.7% Swing 10.1% N/A 6.7%   Fourth party Fifth party Sixth party   Leader None Elizabeth Gabbett Martin Morris Party Independent Green Labour Last election 2 seats, 4.6% 2 seats, 2.1% 0 seats, 19.7% Seats before 4 2 0 Seats won 3 1 1 Seat change 1 1 1 Popular vote 5,285 1,220 6,667 Percentage 17.8% 4.1% 22.5% Swing 13.2% 2.0% 2.8%
Results of the 2024 Epping Forest District Council election (top placing candidate shading an entire ward, with second and third placed candidates places in order in the circles)
Council composition following the election
Leader before election Chris Whitbread Conservative Leader after election Chris Whitbread Conservative

Background

Since its creation in 1974, only the Conservatives have ever formed majorities on the council. The party held control until 1994, before retaking the council from no overall control in 2007. The Conservatives briefly fell behind both Labour and the Liberal Democrats in 1996, but regained their status as the largest party in 1999.

In the previous 2023 election, the Conservatives lost 1 seat with 48.3% of the vote, the Liberal Democrats gained 2 with 22.4%, independents and the Green Party gained and lost no seats with 4.6% and 2.1% respectively, and the British Democratic Party lost representation with 1.3% (their one councillor had been elected for the For Britain Movement). The Loughton Residents Association maintained their 13 seats.

Boundary changes

Epping Forest usually elects its councillors in thirds, on a 4-year cycle. However, following boundary changes, all councillors will be elected to the new wards. The change reduces the number of councillors by 4.

Old wards	No. of seats	New wards	No. of seats
Broadley Common, Epping Upland and Nazeing	1	Buckhurst Hill East and Whitebridge	3
Buckhurst Hill East	2	Buckhurst Hill West	3
Buckhurst Hill West	3	Chigwell with Lambourne	3
Chigwell Row	1	Epping East	3
Chigwell Village	2	Epping West and Rural	3
Chipping Ongar, Greensted and Marden Ash	2	Grange Hill	3
Epping Hemnall	3	Loughton Fairmead	3
Epping Lindsey and Thornwood Common	3	Loughton Forest	3
Grange Hill	3	Loughton Roding	3
Hastingwood, Matching and Sheering Village	1	Loughton St John's	3
High Ongar, Willingale and The Rodings	1	North Weald Bassett	3
Lambourne	1	Ongar	3
Loughton Alderton	2	Roydon and Lower Nazeing	3
Loughton Broadway	2	Rural East	3
Loughton Fairmead	2	Theydon Bois with Passingford	3
Loughton Forest	2	Waltham Abbey North	3
Loughton Roding	2	Waltham Abbey South and Rural	3
Loughton St John's	2	Waltham Abbey West	3
Loughton St Mary's	2
Lower Nazeing	2
Lower Sheering	1
Moreton and Fyfield	1
North Weald Bassett	2
Passingford	1
Roydon	1
Shelley	1
Theydon Bois	2
Waltham Abbey High Beach	1
Waltham Abbey Honey Lane	3
Waltham Abbey North East	2
Waltham Abbey Paternoster	2
Waltham Abbey South West	2

Summary

Prior to the election the council was under Conservative majority control. The Conservatives retained their majority at this election, albeit with a reduced share of the seats.

Council composition

After 2023 election			Before 2024 election			After 2024 election
Party		Seats	Party		Seats	Party		Seats
	Conservative	34		Conservative	34		Conservative	29
	Loughton Residents	13		Loughton Residents	13		Loughton Residents	13
	Liberal Democrats	6		Liberal Democrats	5		Liberal Democrats	7
	Independent	2		Independent	4		Independent	3
	Green	2		Green	2		Green	1
	Labour	0		Labour	0		Labour	1

Changes:

• January 2024: Cherry McCredie leaves Liberal Democrats to sit as an independent

Election result

2024 Epping Forest District Council election
Party		Candidates	Seats	Gains	Losses	Net gain/loss	Seats %	Votes %	Votes	+/−
	Conservative	48	29			3		38.2	11,326	10.1
	Loughton Residents	14	13					17.0	5,020	N/A
	Liberal Democrats	15	7			1		15.7	4,654	6.7
	Independent	13	2			1		17.8	5,285	13.2
	Green	4	1			1		4.1	1,220	2.0
	Labour	22	1			1		22.5	6,667	2.8
	TUSC	2	0					0.7	222	0.3
	British Democratic	1	0					1.0	323	0.3
	English Democrat	1	0
	Reform	1	0					0.7	227	0.3
	UKIP	1	0					0.8	235	N/A

By ward

Sources:

Shaded figures indicate that a party won at least one of three ward seats, whilst boldened figures indicate which party won the popular vote in each ward.

Ward	Conservative	Labour	EFIG	Liberal Democrat	LRA	Green	Other
	%	%	%	%	%	%	%
Buckhurst Hill East & Whitebridge	15.9	15.6	–	–	33.5	27.1	7.9
Buckhurst Hill West	32.9	16.8	13.7	13.3	–	23.3	–
Chigwell with Lambourne	56.6	21.2	22.2	–	–	–	–
Epping East	20.3	10.6	–	44.7	–	–	24.3
Epping West & Rural	36.1	8.5	–	41.0	–	–	14.4
Grange Hill	35.6	20.5	34.8	9.1	–	–	–
Loughton Fairmead	14.1	22.0	–	–	63.9	–	–
Loughton Forest	17.1	13.2	–	8.4	57.9	–	3.3
Loughton Roding	5.5	13.7	6.1	–	34.7	–	40.0
Loughton St. John's	19.7	14.8	–	–	65.5	–	–
North Weald Bassett	32.0	20.8	47.2	–	–	–	–
Ongar	60.7	22.5	–	16.8	–	–	–
Roydon & Lower Nazeing	55.6	29.6	–	–	–	–	14.8
Rural East	33.1	16.4	–	28.2	–	–	22.3
Theydon Bois with Passingford	34.6	7.8	–	47.1	–	–	10.5
Waltham Abbey North	32.7	35.2	–	–	–	–	32.2
Waltham Abbey South & Rural	58.7	41.3	–	–	–	–	–
Waltham Abbey West	55.5	44.5	–	–	–	–	–

Ward results

The Statement of Persons Nominated, which details the candidates standing in each ward, was released by Epping Forest District Council following the close of nominations on 8 April 2024.

Buckhurst Hill East & Whitebridge

Buckhurst Hill East & Whitebridge (3 seats)

Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Loughton Residents	Rose Brookes*	792	42.1
	Loughton Residents	Barbara Cohen	646	34.3
	Green	Elizabeth Gabbett*	639	34.0
	Loughton Residents	Chris Kent	617	32.8
	Green	Dewole Aradeon	596	31.7
	Conservative	Jane Bagshaw	375	19.9
	Labour	Alain Laviolette	369	19.6
	Conservative	Alexia Sparrow	327	17.4
	Conservative	Marshall Vance	320	17.0
	Independent	Ben Brown	186	9.9
Turnout			1,906	33
Registered electors			5,796
	Loughton Residents win (new seat)
	Loughton Residents win (new seat)
	Green win (new seat)

Buckhurst Hill West

Buckhurst Hill West (3 seats)

Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Conservative	Bob Church	819	46.6
	Conservative	Ken Williamson*	800	45.5
	Conservative	Smruti Patel*	706	40.2
	Green	Rebecca Fricker	581	33.0
	Green	Kathryn Radley	550	31.3
	Labour	Tom Kasperkowicz	419	23.8
	EFIG	Lyubka Mihailova	340	19.3
	Liberal Democrats	Ishvinder Matharu	330	18.8
Turnout			1,762	34
Registered electors			5,198
	Conservative win (new seat)
	Conservative win (new seat)
	Conservative win (new seat)

Chigwell with Lambourne

Chigwell with Lambourne (3 seats)

Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Conservative	Craig McCann*	1,164	64.2
	Conservative	Kaz Rizvi*	1,018	56.1
	Conservative	Darshan Sunger*	947	52.2
	EFIG	Shahzaad Malik	457	25.2
	Labour	Tony Casaluci	437	24.1
Turnout			1,826	32
Registered electors			5,645
	Conservative win (new seat)
	Conservative win (new seat)
	Conservative win (new seat)

Epping East

Epping East (3 seats)

Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Liberal Democrats	Janet Whitehouse*	1,100	57.1
	Liberal Democrats	Jon Whitehouse*	1,020	53.0
	Liberal Democrats	Edward Barnard	850	44.1
	Independent	Cherry McCredie*	599	31.1
	Conservative	Mari-Louise Whitbread	501	26.0
	Conservative	James Abbott	477	24.8
	Conservative	Ian Roberts	467	24.2
	Labour	Paul Thomas	262	13.6
Turnout			1,937	35
Registered electors			5,521
	Liberal Democrats win (new seat)
	Liberal Democrats win (new seat)
	Liberal Democrats win (new seat)

Epping West & Rural

Epping West & Rural (3 seats)

Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Liberal Democrats	Mandy George	945	47.3
	Liberal Democrats	Razia Sharif*	926	46.4
	Conservative	Holly Whitbread*	832	41.7
	Liberal Democrats	Elaine Thatcher	815	40.8
	Conservative	Andy Green*	751	37.6
	Conservative	Peter Murray	699	35.0
	Independent	Nigel Avey	332	16.6
	Labour	Sean Voitov	196	9.8
Turnout			2,002	39
Registered electors			5,130
	Liberal Democrats win (new seat)
	Liberal Democrats win (new seat)
	Conservative win (new seat)

Grange Hill

Grange Hill (3 seats)

Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Conservative	Alan Lion*	791	42.5
	EFIG	Lisa Morgan*	775	41.6
	Conservative	Rashni Chahal Holden	702	37.7
	Conservative	Osman Ali	631	33.9
	EFIG	Debby Rye	592	31.8
	Labour	Angela Ayre	456	24.5
	EFIG	Alana Aradeon	365	19.6
	Liberal Democrats	Steve Hume	203	10.9
Turnout			1,877	31
Registered electors			6,142
	Conservative win (new seat)
	Independent win (new seat)
	Conservative win (new seat)

Loughton Fairmead

Loughton Fairmead (3 seats)

Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Loughton Residents	Louise Mead*	966	74.5
	Loughton Residents	Will Kauffman	761	58.7
	Loughton Residents	Arash Ardakani	688	53.1
	Labour	Gareth Rawlings	332	25.6
	Labour	Alastair Smith	287	22.1
	Conservative	Bobby Nagpal	213	16.4
Turnout			1,306	24
Registered electors			5,472
	Loughton Residents win (new seat)
	Loughton Residents win (new seat)
	Loughton Residents win (new seat)

Loughton Forest

Loughton Forest (3 seats)

Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Loughton Residents	Roger Baldwin*	1,220	67.0
	Loughton Residents	Michael Owen*	1,171	64.3
	Loughton Residents	Ian Allgood*	1,167	64.1
	Conservative	Sarah Metcalfe	361	19.8
	Conservative	Katharine Hawes	354	19.4
	Conservative	Jan Ridding	288	15.8
	Labour	Tom Draper	279	15.3
	Liberal Democrats	Naomi Davies	178	9.8
	TUSC	Scott Jones	70	3.8
Turnout			1,831	35
Registered electors			5,295
	Loughton Residents win (new seat)
	Loughton Residents win (new seat)
	Loughton Residents win (new seat)

Loughton Roding

Loughton Roding (3 seats)

Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Independent	Stephen Murray*	1,098	74.4
	Loughton Residents	Sheree Rackham	826	56.0
	Loughton Residents	Chidi Nweke*	767	52.0
	Labour	Debbie Wild	327	22.2
	EFIG	Malachi Fontenelle	186	12.6
	Conservative	Tim Parry	130	8.8
Turnout			1,481	27
Registered electors			5,446
	Independent win (new seat)
	Loughton Residents win (new seat)
	Loughton Residents win (new seat)

Loughton St. John's

Loughton St. John's (3 seats)

Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Loughton Residents	Chris Pond*	1,216	75.1
	Loughton Residents	Howard Kauffman*	1,106	68.3
	Loughton Residents	Graham Wiskin	1,012	62.5
	Conservative	Valerie Metcalfe	366	22.6
	Labour	Emma Roberts	274	16.9
Turnout			1,625	30
Registered electors			5,363
	Loughton Residents win (new seat)
	Loughton Residents win (new seat)
	Loughton Residents win (new seat)

North Weald Bassett

North Weald Bassett (3 seats)

Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	EFIG	Tom Bromwich	889	58.8
	Conservative	Nigel Bedford*	604	40.0
	Conservative	Les Burrows*	540	35.7
	Conservative	Les Mills	472	31.2
	Labour	Kevin Hind	392	25.9
	Labour	Paul Stockton	382	25.3
Turnout			1,521	31
Registered electors			4,981
	Independent win (new seat)
	Conservative win (new seat)
	Conservative win (new seat)

Ongar

Ongar (3 seats)

Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Conservative	Mary Dadd	911	60.2
	Conservative	Jaymey McIvor*	828	54.7
	Conservative	Paul Keska*	827	54.7
	Labour	Alison Wingfield	337	22.3
	Labour	Ronald Huish	332	21.9
	Labour	Timothy White	296	19.6
	Liberal Democrats	Monica Richardson	252	16.7
Turnout			1,525	27
Registered electors			5,742
	Conservative win (new seat)
	Conservative win (new seat)
	Conservative win (new seat)

Roydon & Lower Nazeing

Roydon & Lower Nazeing (3 seats)

Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Conservative	Richard Bassett*	883	63.6
	Conservative	Chris Whitbread*	715	51.5
	Conservative	Ronda Pugsley*	678	48.8
	Labour Co-op	Alex Kyriacou	470	33.8
	UKIP	Martin Harvey	235	16.9
Turnout			1,393	26
Registered electors			5,460
	Conservative win (new seat)
	Conservative win (new seat)
	Conservative win (new seat)

Rural East

Rural East (3 seats)

Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Conservative	Ray Balcombe*	817	43.8
	Conservative	Richard Morgan*	774	41.5
	Conservative	Ian Hadley*	737	39.5
	Liberal Democrats	Lesley Paine	697	37.3
	Liberal Democrats	Bijal Pattani	465	24.9
	Labour	Ann Huish	405	21.7
	Reform	Peter Bell	324	17.4
	English Democrat	Robin Tilbrook	227	12.2
Turnout			1,876	30
Registered electors			6,249
	Conservative win (new seat)
	Conservative win (new seat)
	Conservative win (new seat)

Theydon Bois with Passingford

Theydon Bois with Passingford (3 seats)

Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Liberal Democrats	Clive Amos*	949	50.7
	Liberal Democrats	Tippy Cornish	882	47.1
	Conservative	Sue Jones	698	37.3
	Liberal Democrats	Richard Griffiths	695	37.1
	Conservative	Heather Brady*	647	34.5
	Conservative	John Philip*	581	31.0
	Independent	Christine Burgess	212	11.3
	Independent	Louis Turchin	211	11.3
	Labour	Christine Mortimer	157	8.4
Turnout			1,880	36
Registered electors			5,175
	Liberal Democrats win (new seat)
	Liberal Democrats win (new seat)
	Conservative win (new seat)

Waltham Abbey North

Waltham Abbey North (3 seats)

Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Labour	Martin Morris	520	41.2
	Conservative	Jeane Lea*	483	38.3
	Conservative	David Stocker*	447	35.4
	Conservative	Fraser Scott	417	33.0
	British Democratic	Julian Leppert	323	25.6
	TUSC	Adeline Walsh	152	12.0
Turnout			1,268	24
Registered electors			5,371
	Labour win (new seat)
	Conservative win (new seat)
	Conservative win (new seat)

Waltham Abbey South & Rural

Waltham Abbey South & Rural (3 seats)

Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Conservative	Steven Heather*	715	57.7
	Conservative	Maria Markham*	676	54.5
	Conservative	Tim Matthews*	622	50.2
	Labour	Simon Harris	503	40.6
Turnout			1,261	24
Registered electors			5,347
	Conservative win (new seat)
	Conservative win (new seat)
	Conservative win (new seat)

Waltham Abbey West

Waltham Abbey West (3 seats)

Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Conservative	Joseph Parsons*	663	51.7
	Conservative	Jodie Lucas*	618	48.2
	Conservative	Shane Yerrell*	598	46.6
	Labour	Bob Greyson	532	41.5
Turnout			1,296	23
Registered electors			5,550
	Conservative win (new seat)
	Conservative win (new seat)
	Conservative win (new seat)

Parish council results

Below are the results from the three parish and town councils that had contested elections. There were uncontested elections to several other parish councils in the district, but given these parish councillors were not elected via a vote, they have been omitted from this list.

Buckhurst Hill Parish

Overall parish results
Party		Vote	%	±	Seats before	Seats after	±
	Conservative	4,942	48.7	11.6	5	5
	Green	3,185	31.3	8.4	6	5	1
	EFIG	1,544	15.2	N/A	0	0
	Independent	476	4.6	N/A	0	1	1
Turnout		10,147			11	11

Buckhurst Hill East

Party		Vote	%	±	Seats before	Seats after	±
	Green	2,631	69.1	7.1	5	4	1
	Conservative	702	18.4	19.6	0	0
	Independent	476	12.5	N/A	0	1	1
Turnout		1,197	35.0
Electorate		5,198

Buckhurst Hill West

Party		Vote	%	±	Seats before	Seats after	±
	Conservative	4,240	61.0	8.0	5	5
	EFIG	1,544	22.0	N/A	0	0
	Green	1,184	17.0	3.0	1	1
Turnout		1,754	34.0
Electorate		5,319

Chigwell Parish

Overall parish results
Party		Vote	%	±	Seats before	Seats after	±
	Conservative	5,486	57.5	31.5	11	5	6
	EFIG	3,570	37.4	N/A	0	6	6
	Green	473	4.9	N/A	0	0
Turnout		9,529			11	11

Chigwell Row

Party		Vote	%	±	Seats before	Seats after	±
	EFIG	N/A		—	0	2	2
	Conservative	N/A		—	2	0	2
Turnout		N/A	N/A
Electorate		N/A

Chigwell Village

Party		Vote	%	±	Seats before	Seats after	±
	Conservative	981	66.0	23.0	4	2	2
	EFIG	489	34.0	N/A	0	0
Turnout		1,470	36.0
Electorate		2,360

Grange Hill

Party		Vote	%	±	Seats before	Seats after	±
	Conservative	4,505	55.9	N/A	5	3	2
	EFIG	3,081	38.3	N/A	0	4	4
	Green	473	5.9	N/A	0	0
Turnout		8,059	30.0
Electorate		6,142

Loughton Town

Overall town results
Party		Vote	%	±	Seats before	Seats after	±
	LRA	14,481	88.6	4.6	21	21
	Conservative	1,371	8.3	2.8	0	0
	Independent	359	2.1	3.3	1	1
	EFIG	125	0.7	N/A	0	0
Turnout		16,336			22	22

Loughton Alderton

Party		Vote	%	±	Seats before	Seats after	±
	LRA	1,746	87.3	6.0	3	3
	Conservative	129	6.5	3.0	0	0
	EFIG	125	6.3	5.3	0	0
Turnout		2,000	25.0
Electorate		3,267

Loughton Broadway

Party		Vote	%	±	Seats before	Seats after	±
	LRA	284	83.8	6.0	3	2	1
	Conservative	55	16.2	6.5	0	0
Turnout		339	22.0
Electorate		939

Loughton Debden

Party		Vote	%	±	Seats before	Seats after	±
	LRA	414	77.0	N/A	N/A	1	1
	Conservative	125	23.0	N/A	N/A	0
Turnout		539	23.0
Electorate		2,414

Loughton Fairmead

Party		Vote	%	±	Seats before	Seats after	±
	LRA	1,787	94.1	1.8	3	3
	Conservative	112	5.9	1.8	0	0
Turnout		1,899	25.0
Electorate		3,139

Loughton Forest

Party		Vote	%	±	Seats before	Seats after	±
	LRA	2,465	88.8	10.9	3	3
	Conservative	311	11.2	5.7	0	0
Turnout		2,776	34.0
Electorate		3,347

Loughton Roding

Party		Vote	%	±	Seats before	Seats after	±
	Independent	359	94.0	61.3	1	1
	Conservative	24	6.0	0.8	0	0
	LRA	N/A		N/A	3	0	3
Turnout		383	35.0
Electorate		1,159

Loughton St. John's

Party		Vote	%	±	Seats before	Seats after	±
	LRA	5,617	94.1	6.3	3	5	2
	Conservative	350	5.9	2.6	0	0
Turnout		5,967	30.0
Electorate		5,363

Loughton St. Mary's

Party		Vote	%	±	Seats before	Seats after	±
	LRA	1,080	88.5	5.8	3	2	1
	Conservative	141	11.5	3.5	0	0
Turnout		1,221	35.0
Electorate		1,948

Loughton Whitebridge

Party		Vote	%	±	Seats before	Seats after	±
	LRA	1,088	89.8	N/A	N/A	2	2
	Conservative	124	10.2	N/A	N/A	0
Turnout		1,212	30.0
Electorate		2,363