Illegal Councillor

ILLEGAL COUNCILLOR

Written for the Blog by a Preston Resident.

ILLEGAL COUNCILLOR

We've just had a comment from a person who lives in Preston saying he/she has heard the council have an illegal councillor sitting with them, I said I would post this reply as a Blog.

We believe they have, the councillor was co-opted during the October 2012 meeting, the council didn't give the required legal minimum of 3 clear days notice, they only gave 2 days notice.

We know this because we are aware that the council posts the notice for the coming council meeting, normally on a Saturday morning between about 0830am to 10am, because of the legal definition of the 'clear 3 days notice' the day the notice is posted (Saturday), Sunday and the day of the meeting (Wednesday) cannot be counted when calculating 3 clear days, that only leaves Monday and Tuesday, 2 clear days notice. Can we prove it, yes I think we can with photographic evidence, we have been watching them post their notices for a while. We weren't prepared to rely on their honesty, it's a shameful situation I agree.

If a council meeting with less than the required minimum notice is illegal you can't conduct any council business and therefore a person co-opted at such a meeting is not actually legally appointed and is therefore not a councillor.

If there is anyone out there who is qualified to confirm or contradict this please contact us, we will be pleased to hear from you.

Although we have informed the council of this they simply steam ahead without any comment, possibly they know we are unlikely to take legal action because of the cost so they are safe, thats our democracy I guess.

Hope that answers you Preston resident and thank you for viewing.