Waltham Forest Council Elections 2026: Epping Forest seats and seven county councillors

Voters in Epping Forest in Essex took part in the waltham forest council elections 2026 for 18 district council seats and seven county councillors. Polls closed at 10pm on Thursday, May 7, and the count took place on Friday, May 8, with Epping Forest District Council results due from 3pm.

Epping Forest District Council

Seats were contested in 18 wards, with one councillor elected in each ward. The contest covered 18 out of 54 seats on Epping Forest District Council, which elects a third of councillors each time in elections that take place in three of every four years.

Before the vote, the council was under no overall control and was being run by a Conservative minority administration. That made the 2026 result important for the balance of power at the district level, because the election could shift how the council is managed once the count is complete.

Essex County Council

Epping Forest voters also elected seven county councillors to Essex County Council. Those seats formed part of a wider election day that involved more than 5,000 council seats across 136 local authorities in England, alongside mayoral elections in six areas.

The local vote placed Epping Forest in the middle of a larger set of county, district and mayoral contests. For residents, the immediate question is which councillors now hold the district and county seats that shape decisions in the area.

Friday Count

Results for the Epping Forest District Council local election were due from 3pm on Friday, May 8. The available facts do not give the final seat totals, so the practical answer for voters is to look to the count for which wards changed hands and whether the Conservative minority administration still has the numbers to govern.