Hucknall Central by-election campaign underway as November 23 announced as polling day

And Labour has already announced that popular local man and former district and county councillor John Wilkinson will be their candidate for the seat.

Labour said: “John will be a vocal, dedicated and visible councillor for Hucknall Central.

"He has pushed to stop Ashfield District Council building on green belt, fought for Edgewood Leisure Centre to stay open and led the Hucknall Needs More Doctors campaign.

"The seat has been vacant since the death of Ashfield Independent councillor Jim Blagden earlier this year.

At the time, the ruling Independents said they would not call a by-election with the main council elections less than a year away.

However, rules state that any of the opposition parties or members of the public could call for an election in they wanted one and Labour has now done that.

John Wilkinson said: “With the sad passing of Jim Blagden, who I’ve know for more than 30 years, it meant Hucknall had one less councillor and, to be quite blunt, in the current situation we find ourselves, I think every Hucknall voice needs to be heard.

"And the only way we could do that was to hope enough people called for a by-election so we could get that vacancy filled.

"People will argue that the new councillor will only be in office from November until next May when the next full council elections are.

"But there are at least two major things that are going to happen between now and that time.

"One is more discussion on the local plan and the other is the council budget for next year.

"Both of those issues are vitally important for people living in Hucknall and I just felt very strongly that we can’t have a missing Hucknall voice.”

The Ashfield Independents say they hope to name their candidate for the seat by the weekend.

The party said it had around 300 members in the Hucknall Central ward and would be balloting them in due course to decide who will fight the seat for them.

The Conservatives said they were also going through their selection process and would be announcing their candidate in the near future.