Questions about town and parish councils
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0 votes
Can a councillor at a principal authority (ie County Council, District Council, etc) who is paid an allowance in that elected role, and who was elected as political party’s candidate, subsequently be appointed serve as an unpaid parish clerk at a parish council that is subordinate to the same principle authority or within that authority’s broad constituency (even if the county or district councillor doesn’t directly represent the division of the parish council)? Or would they be disqualified from continuing to serve as a county or district councillor? Is there any political restriction to either post?
by (640 points)

3 Answers

+1 vote
The restriction is the other way round:  an individual cannot be or become a paid employee of a local authority for which they are also a councillor or have been a councillor for the previous 12 months. So, if a councillor wishes to become a clerk of the same authority, they cannot be paid until 12 months has elapsed since resigning as a councillor.  I don't think there are restrictions on any clerk being a councillor for another authority although happy to be corrected, and to be clear a parish or town council is an entity in its own right and is not "subordinate" to a principal authority
by (18.5k points)
Absolutely, and they need not be unpaid. You can employ a councillor of any council other than your own.
0 votes
It’s possible to interpret a degree of concern from your post viz a viz the perceived  ‘political’ influence which (it is assumed) may be brought to bear at parish level (there is no denying a clerk can have influence even though they shouldn’t) by the installation of the ward / borough (?) Cllr as the parish clerk given that they have declared political allegiance at another level of local government.
If all of those assumptions mentioned above are an accurate interpretation of the implied question, then my answer would be, whilst potentially undesirable, there is no actual barrier to a ward / borough Cllr being an unpaid volunteer (presumably temporary) clerk at a parish level.
If the (presumed) anticipated political bias actually manifests then it could be possible to take the temp clerk to task via employment parameters for failing to be impartial
by (19.8k points)
0 votes
Did you say in a previous thread that this person is also a parish Cllr or am I conflating / confusing different topics?

If they are a county councillor AND a parish councillor AND the temporary clerk for that parish, then they can’t be paid unless resigning from the parish council and a period of 12 months has elapsed.
If they are NOT a parish councillor why are they voluntary unpaid clerk rather than temporary paid clerk?
by (19.8k points)

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