The district of Epping Forest is in the county of Essex in England. It was created on 1 April 1974, following the merger of Epping Urban District, Chigwell Urban District, Waltham Holy Cross Urban District, and part of Epping and Ongar Rural District.
Until 2002, Epping Forest District Council was represented by 59 councillors. In 2002 the ward boundaries were reorganised, resulting in the loss of one council seat, and since then the district has had 58 councillors representing 32 wards. Each ward is represented by one, two or three councillors, depending on the ward's population, so that each councillor represents a roughly equal proportion of the district's electorate.
Councillors serve for a four-year term. They are elected on a "cycle of thirds", i.e. one third of the Council is elected each year, followed by one year without election.
New ward boundaries are being prepared to take effect from the 2024 elections.
The table below summarises the number of seats held by each party after each year's elections (no elections took place in 2005, 2009, 2013 and 2017). The council returned to Conservative control following the gain of a seat in a by-election in December 2006 after being under no overall control since 1994.