Voters in Priory Vale  ward in Swindon will be asked to go to the polls on June 24, just seven weeks after they last voted.

And it will be just 10 months before they have to vote again for candidates for the same seat.

Councillor Emma Faramarzi, an Independent Tory, resigned from her role as one of the ward councillors on Monday, triggering a by-election – with the date set six weeks from now.

She had hoped to have the election coincide with a new election which will be held borough- and  Wiltshire-wide for a new Police and Crime Commissioner. That election has been made necessary because the winner of the vote on Thursday, Conservative Jonathon Seed, cannot take up the post owing to an old driving conviction.

But the rules for elections for the council and PCC are different meaning elections will be held on different days. The PCC elections will be on August 19, eight weeks later than the Priory Vale by-election.

The winning candidate in the north Swindon ward will serve for only 10 months before the seat is up for grabs again – Coun Faramarzi was elected for a four-year term in 2018 and  the new councillor elected will only serve out the rest of that time.

It has been reported that the cost of the by-election will be around £10,000 and that the cost of the new PCC election top more than £1m.