Reply to comment, what is co-option?

Reply to comment, what is co-option?

Written for the Blog by a Preston resident.

When a councillor resigns the resulting vacancy needs to be filled, in the normal course of things there are two ways that can be done. Firstly an election could be held giving members of the parish a vote on who they would like to see elected onto the council, the successful candidate is the one with the most votes, alternatively, council members are able to vote for a candidate of their choice without public participation.

For either one to occur certain steps have to be taken. Whenever a council member resigns that resignation by law is effective immediately, a councillor cannot submit a letter of resignation stating that he/she wishes to resign in say two months time.

If a letter of resignation is received from a councillor the Parish Clerk is required to inform the appointed Monitoring Officer (Returning Officer) of the East Riding council that the resignation has taken place at the earliest opportunity because the Returning Officer is responsible for the conduct of and arrangements for Parish Council elections.

Filling the vacancy by election.

The Parish Council must then advertise the vacancy in places that are as conspicuous as possible and must be displayed for 14 days from the date of the notice, the Parish Council may also advertise the vacancy in any other manner they wish.

If during that 14 days, 10 electors from the Parish Electoral List call for an election to be held the Returning Officer will inform the Parish Clerk immediately.

The Returning Officer will decide the date of the election, which must take place within 60 days from the date of the notice.

Filling the vacancy by co-option

If a minimum of 10 electors do not request an election within the 14 days the Returning Officer will notify the Parish Clerk that the position must be filled by co-option as soon as is practical.

In this case the council will invite interested parties to put their names forward for consideration and will then place the item (co-option) on the agenda for a subsequent council meeting. Any number of people can put in a notice of interest to the clerk (subject to qualification, see posting ‘Role of a councillor’) who will then put their names forward for the consideration of the council.

Providing the council is quorate (minimum number of members) the co-option will be decided at that council meeting. The winning candidate requires a simple majority of votes from those councillors present and voting, it does not need to be a full council.

The winning candidate should then be asked to take his/her seat in council and sign the documents accepting the office of councillor.

If there is a mass resignation and the number of vacancies leaves the council without a quorum (minimum of 5 members for Preston) the District Council (East Riding in our case) will order an election to be held. The District Council can also by order appoint people to fill all or any of the vacancies until other councillors are elected and take up office.

Just as a note, there are provisions in the Local Government Act 1972 that creates a distinction between co-opted Councillor’s and elected councilor’s and councils may take differing views of their respective positions but as it stands at the moment I don’t believe the issue has been resolved by the Secretary of State so for now the distinction stands.

This hopefully explains the outline adequately.

Thanks for reading and for your comment.