New Tory Councillor confused over by-election facts.
Liberal Democrat Town Councillor for Southborough North ward Learn more
by Trevor Poile on 15 February, 2017
The new Tory Town Councillor, Ian Kinghorn, has made a bizarre claim in the local press that the recent by-election caused by the resignation of Tory Bill Legrys “need not have been held until the May 2017 elections had it not been for the Liberal Democrats.” This shows a complete ignorance of electoral law. The timetable for a Town Council by-election is set out in law and is determined by the date of the resignation which in this case was the end of November. If he really wanted the election in May, he should have persuaded his colleague to resign in March rather than in November. This would have saved the Council money.
3 Comments
I understand here that the council could have co-opted a member rather than calling an election. The former would have saved our towns people the expense of the election.
This is a private opinion and nothing to do with the Tunbridge Wells North campaign. All councillors or representatives of the people should be elected, not co-opted. That does democracy no service. If all councillors were co-opted you would end up with a chamber that only listens to its own voice – an echo chamber!
Vibrant democracy needs healthy opposition. Just look at what is happening in Westminister now. We have a weak Labour leader and it has lead to weak opposition when we are in most need of it.
Surely we are only talking about one member until the next set of elections. As I understood it we have a lowly parish council with all the real power being transferred to Tunbridge Wells.