It is poor reflection on local democracy in Cheshire East that 125 Parish/Town Council seats are left unfilled in Cheshire East. That is despite all the seats being up for election in May this year.
I am calling on the Borough Council and the Town/Parish Councils concerned to do far more to advertise these vacancies on their web sites. Currently there is nothing on the Cheshire East website about these vacancies, so how are the public supposed to know about them? They should also be doing more to encourage people to stand. Parish/Town Councils are the important grassroots , first tier of Local Government in Cheshire and they should be a forceful voice for local people.
The vacancies can be filled via co-option. You need to live, work or own land/property within 3 miles of the Parish/Town boundary to be eligible to stand. If anyone is interested they need to apply to the Clerk of the Council concerned. I have attached a list of all the vacancies to this letter.
At the Parish/Town Council elections in May the vast majority of Parish/Town Councils did not have an election because there was not enough candidates to cause an election and this was true of previous elections.
Local democracy is not alive and well in Cheshire East and the Borough Council and the Parish/Town Councils with vacancies, should be doing a lot more to revive it,
Yours faithfully,
Cllr Brian Silvester
UKIP Rope Councillor
No comments:
Post a Comment