The Price of Democracy

The big news from the town council yesterday evening was for the first time during the life of this blog there will be a proper by-election for the two current vacant seats. We've long held the view that a by-election was the best way forward rather than the undemocratic process of co-opting. 

From the Town Council's website, retrieved today, showing resigned councillors Dave Snape and Keiran Allsopp-Robson, extreme left and extreme right

This follows the resignation of Dave Snape and Pat Astbury. There has been a falling out between Snape and mayor Gavin Harris. It's possible that Astbury resigned in support—I *think* she's of the same political hue as Snape. Astbury was only just co-opted. The official reason appears to be she has too much on. 

It required at least 10 electors supporting such a move. Rather than this being for positive reasons, I get the impression that this was orchestrated by some bad feeling among some in the social media community, who were bitter about the lack of elections and who hold a jaundiced view of the town council. It would even seem to be motivated by a political party (even though the town council tends to act beyond party lines). More than that, word on the street (which may or may not be true) is that the election was orchestrated by a cabal associated with a certain town centre pub.

There was some sharp intake of breath when the town council learnt of the cost. It was likely to be at least £6,000 to hold such an election. No money is set aside for elections but there are reserves from previous years when there were no by-elections: £6,211 was available plus £7,500 of 'miscellaneous' expenditure, of which £2,000 was spent. There'll be an (ordinary) election next year but even without it the town council now needs to set money aside for such a possibility. This may become the new normal.  

If there are more than two candidates, the election will be on April 15th. No canvassing or leaflet dropping would be permitted and anyone who is interested will probably need to use the royal mail. This rather precludes independents and means we can expect only party candidates to stand. No one else will have the resource to leaflet drop 2,406 households which, in postage alone, comes to £1,588. And this sum is not guaranteed even to buy one year in office, as there will be ordinary elections in May 2022.

Had there been by-elections at the resignation of Geraint Woolford, Emrys Wynne, Keiran Allsopp-Robson, Pat Astbury and Dave Snape, this would have cost the town council £24,000 (four by-elections, as Snape and Astbury resigned near enough together). That's the price of democracy.

Remember that the number of town councillors who've never faced the ballot box is currently about half.