Cambridgeshire County Council
English county council where Reform UK councillor Andy Osborn was convicted under Section 106 RPA 1983.
Cambridgeshire was held back from the government's 16 July 2026 local government reorganisation decisions, alongside West Sussex, with no revised timetable published as of 24 July.
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What does the Cambridgeshire Section 106 conviction mean for Reform UK's ability to hold its 2025 council gains?
Timeline for Cambridgeshire County Council
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Cambridgeshire County Council is the upper-tier local authority for the county of Cambridgeshire in the East of England, responsible for adult social care, children's services, education, highways and strategic planning across the county, including Cambridge city and its four districts.
The council continues to operate under its existing two-tier structure, pending a Local Government Reorganisation decision the government has held back rather than resolved, one of only two county areas, alongside West Sussex, Left without a confirmed timetable in the July 2026 settlement.
That uncertainty leaves both the council's future unitary boundary and its election calendar unresolved, distinguishing it from the 14 other county areas covered by the same review, which now have confirmed vesting dates.
The reorganisation decision remains pending
Cambridgeshire and Peterborough was one of two county areas, alongside West Sussex, held back from the government's 16 July 2026 Local Government Reorganisation decisions, with Communities Secretary Steve Reed saying more time was needed to get the outcome right.
That leaves the council without a confirmed unitary boundary, election date or vesting day, even as the other 14 county areas covered by the same review move ahead on schedule. No revised timetable had been published as of 24 July, leaving Cambridgeshire's two-tier structure of county and district councils in place for now, pending a decision the government has not dated.
A conviction vacated a council seat
A Cambridgeshire county councillor, Reform UK's Andy Osborn, was convicted at Westminster Magistrates' Court on 16 April 2026 under Section 106 of the Representation of the People Act 1983, for publishing a false Facebook post about a Conservative rival during the 2025 elections.
Osborn, elected to his Cambridgeshire division in May 2025, was fined £1,800 and required to vacate his seat, triggering a by-election. The case sits within a wider wave of scrutiny of Reform-linked funding and Conduct that ran through the spring, though this particular episode turned on a candidate's own Conduct in office rather than on party donations.