2023 Bolton Metropolitan Borough Council election

The 2023 Bolton Metropolitan Borough Council elections took place on 4 May 2023 alongside other local elections across the United Kingdom. Due to boundary changes, all 60 seats on Bolton Metropolitan Borough Council were up for election.

The council remained in no overall control following the election, however the Labour Party, with the support of Horwich and Blackrod First and One Kearsley, were able to displace the Conservative Party's minority administration and install their group leader Nick Peel as the new leader of the council.

Background
The Local Government Act 1972 created a two-tier system of metropolitan counties and districts covering Greater Manchester, Merseyside, South Yorkshire, Tyne and Wear, the West Midlands, and West Yorkshire starting in 1974. Bolton was a district of the Greater Manchester metropolitan county. The Local Government Act 1985 abolished the metropolitan counties, with metropolitan districts taking on most of their powers as metropolitan boroughs. The Greater Manchester Combined Authority was created in 2011 and began electing the mayor of Greater Manchester from 2017, which was given strategic powers covering a region coterminous with the former Greater Manchester metropolitan county.

In December 2022 the Local Government Boundary Commission for England made The Bolton (Electoral Changes) Order 2022, which officially abolished all 20 existing wards and established 20 new wards with new boundaries. Because of this change all 60 seats on the council, three per ward, were contested.

Electoral process
The election took place using the plurality block voting system, a form of first-past-the-post voting, with each wards being represented by three councillors. The candidate with the most votes in each ward will serve a four year term ending in 2027, the second-placed candidate will serve a three year term ending in 2026 and the third-placed candidate will serve a one year term ending in 2024.

All registered electors (British, Irish, Commonwealth and European Union citizens) living in Bolton aged 18 or over were entitled to vote in the election. People who lived at two addresses in different councils, such as university students with different term-time and holiday addresses, were entitled to be registered for and vote in elections in both local authorities. Voting in-person at polling stations took place from 07:00 to 22:00 on election day, and voters were able to apply for postal votes or proxy votes in advance of the election.

Results
Asterisks (*) denote incumbent councillors seeking re-election.

Kearsley
A by-election was held on 16 November 2023 following the resignation of Paul Heslop on 2 October 2023.

Westhoughton North and Hunger Hill
A by-election will be held on 16 November 2023 following the resignation of Bernadette Eckersley-Fallon on 2 October 2023.