THE ELECTION process to fill the two vacancies on Hedon Town Council has begun.
Nomination papers for candidates will be available from the East Riding Council and Hedon Town Council offices and websites.
- Nominations need to be returned no later than 12:00 noon on the Friday 10th January 2014.
- If contested, the polling day will be Thursday 6th February 2014.
Copies of the nomination forms can be downloaded here: Nomination Form.
Copies of the Notice of Election can be downloaded by clicking the image below.
At a public meeting last year two councillors were criticised in regard to their attendance at council meetings, one being less than 50% and the other less than 20%. The councillor with the 50% rate, did I believe not miss any other meeting in 2013, however the other councillor continued his non attendance.
After the two resignations in November the councillor with this shocking attendance record started attending meetings, one would ask why.
I believe this was to progress the issue of the new Deputy Mayor, who it is likely will be the new Mayor 2014/15 even though he is co-opted onto the council not elected by the public.
It was disappointing to note that at last nights council meeting both of these councillors were absent again, along with Cllr Bryan.
It is very likely that that there will be a full attendance of councillors at the next council meeting as it is a public meeting.
It would be advantageous for the four applicants for the vacant positions on the council to attend to see what happens.
I would be a shame if there is no election and it is just a walk on ie one or only two apply, we need opposition to the closed group that exist on the council and what we need a year in May at the full election are 12 new people to take the Town forward. The council only meet two Thursdays a month and not every Thursday as some believe, even that is too much for some councillors (see the attendance figures).
♦♦♦ DEADLINE: 12:00 NOON TOMORROW Friday 10th January 2014 ♦♦♦
Oh right thanks for making things more clear on this one councillor
For the record Gentlemen, this arrangement is entirely in the hands of the Electoral Team at East Riding of Yorkshire Council. When a vacancy arises the Town Clerk is legally bound to notify Beverley within a tight timeframe, which of course she did.
As I understand it ERYC then allocate a timeslot for the process to take place, and a date for the election itself is fixed. There are apparently a lot of parish and town council by-elections taking place over the next few weeks and the team has limited manpower, so we were placed in a queue.
The date has now been announced. If there were no other elections for the team to fit in I would have expected it to be quicker than this.
The Christmas holiday at the Town Hall might impact on someone getting the Nomination Paper, but if you hear of anyone being disadvantaged, I will be pleased to help them sort it out.
The election is not as you suggest being ‘rushed’, there is a system in place and we have no control over it.
Thank you John for your clarification of ERYC election matters, with a little bit more forethought probably the Election Team could have avoided the short period of time in which Nomination Papers are available at Hedon Town Hall, but with your kind offer of assistance to anyone requiring papers, the matter seems sorted. Maybe a selection of them can be left at The Customer Services office on Hull Road, Hedon.
I am aware of The ERYC sole system jurisdiction in local election matters, and have not intimated any other parties involvement. Regards Jim.
I agree Jim , I thought myself that this election seems very rushed.
I have been looking for the relevance of the Date 2nd Jan 2014 at the bottom of the Hedon election notice and realize that this is when the Town Hall reopens after the Christmas recess, saying that means, that any elector not being fortunate in obtaining a Nomination Paper today(19th Dec) will have to chase off to Beverley. If they are not on the internet and able to download a paper, that leaves them with eight days to pick one up at the Town Hall, Some of those days the Town Hall will be closed again.!
What’s the big rush? seems an inappropriate time to be informed of what some Hedon residents believe to be a very important event. Regards Jim.