Council size, why 9 councillor's

Comment reply

Hi Pete

Prior to 2011 as mentioned in previous posts, Preston Parish Council (PPC) or residents had not enjoyed the benefits of an actual public poll (election) to elect any councillor for at least 14 years, which takes us back to the mid 1990’s. If public elections are held every 4 years how have they managed that?

There are 13 councillors on PPC and to make any meeting legal they need a third of councillors to attend (5), once they have that number (a Quorum) they are legally in a position of being able to conduct council business and make decisions on our (residents) behalf.

Since the mid 1990’s there has been a core of councillors (6) who have manipulated the council for their own purposes, I’m not suggesting what those purposes are at this point. We had 6 councillors who were able to ‘choose’ who they co-opted onto the council with them, giving us (the public) no say in the matter at all. We had 6 councillors who considered it their own personal business who is co-opted (elected by them) onto the council and all decisions effecting residents of Preston have been made by the same 6 people, for at least 14 years which led to gross mismanagement, we as residents had never had any influence or voice on who joins our council to represent us, or any voice in council for that matter!

Those 6 councillors will take great care vetting who is acceptable to them as they have for so many years and ensure they co-opt people who are not a challenge or threat to them or their private agenda. Once those vacancies are filled it’s back to business as usual, no residents of Preston have had any say in who represents them or in the running of our parish since the mid 1990’s

Remember they already have the power to legally make decisions on our (residents) behalf because they always ensure there are at least 5 to make up the quorum and, in order to maintain and secure that position they must prevent a public poll which would take the choice out of their hands, they might end up with someone who is prepared to challenge them. As was proven in May 2011, although there has never been any challenge to them.

So how do they get around public polls (elections) every 4 years? They simply have a number of councillors maybe 4 or 5 stand down (resign) prior to the public poll, this could take place over a period of 6 months because in the 6 months leading up to a public poll the council does not have to fill those vacancies, normal rules are suspended for that period.

We now have 13 vacancies for Parish Councillors and only 6 or 7 candidates (the original 6/7 councillors) standing for ‘re-election’. There is clearly no point in going to the expense of a public poll when there isn’t enough candidates to fill all the vacancies. Result? Those 6/7 councillors are deemed to have been ‘re-elected’ unopposed and are duly installed as ‘new’ councillor’s', without any public involvement, this action always denied residents their say because none of them were physically voted onto the council by residents, they got there by default.

Because there are 6 or 7 of them they have ensured they are able to form a quorum and therefore have the power to legally operate as a council (minimum number of 5 councillors), they are now in a position to co-opt (decide who they want to join them without further interference from or any regard for the publics opinions (Preston residents).

We are now basically back to where we started, those ‘core’ councillors will now chose who fills those remaining vacant seats and they will be careful to chose people who have no interest in opposing their agenda, they have now maintained their tight grip on Preston.

How would they know a dozen people wouldn’t stand for election, easy, they have spent 14 years making absolutely sure there is no interest from residents by their actions listed elsewhere in this Blog. How secretive were they? The fact that a number of the Chairman’s neighbours were not aware he was even on the council might give an indication to that.

There have been a few people who joined the council over the years who have had good intentions but one or two people will never adversely affect the 6 core councillors who orchestrate council activity. At some point when it becomes very clear that they are not able to influence anything or get better arrangements in place on whatever subject, new councillors simply resign and the core councillors are again able to pick someone of their choosing by co-option.

In 2011 we had 6 new councillors elected by the public, if you analyse what influence that has had on the council or how it has improved life for the residents of Preston, I’m sure you’ll find there is no difference at all, so why did we bother? Same old story, I don't know!

That’s the problem with having 13 councillor’s? it’s much easier for that core to bunker down and control council activity, strengthening their position by co-option.

What difference would having 9 councillors make, well there’s more than one school of thought on the subject, some would argue it weakens resident’s position while others would argue it strengthens resident’s position.

My personal view is that a reduced number (not necessarily 9) of councillors would strengthen the position of residents because whilst it makes the current core group of councillors (6) much more difficult to maintain their position it also makes it easier for residents to elect independently minded people onto the council in relatively small numbers who are able to make a difference. The key, from recent experience, is that we need those independently minded people because they will put their views and opinions forward on behalf of resident’s, in council and, be willing to stand by them without being persuaded,  intimidated or bullied into joining the core group.

The result should be a more open and transparent council with a flow of information that encourages other residents to become involved.

Yes we did manage to elect 6 new councillors in May 2011 and that should have made a difference but those inexperienced councillors simply chose to ask the core group what they should do and how they should do it. The core group must have thought the sun was shining on them to have such willing novices, they have guided them ever since and consequently been able to continue their policies at arms length and with very little interruption.

New councillor’s in my humble opinion should have thought ‘gee, we don’t really know what we’re supposed to be doing, lets allocate a little time to get to know these new roles we are supposed to play and take it from there’.

No matter what you’re view point is, Preston continues to be run by half a council so having 13 councillors is of no benefit to residents at all.

Hope this helps and thanks for reading and commenting.