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I need to know if I can stand as a councillor in my old parish as I have moved and need to know if it  boundary to the boundary ofrthe postcode of my new home to the boundary of the parish
by (120 points)

1 Answer

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Your home address must be within three miles of the nearest point on the boundary of the parish in which you intend to stand. You must also have lived in, or within three miles of the parish during the whole of the 12 months preceding the day of your nomination and the day of election. If you moved away and then back, you are ineligible.
by (57.9k points)
I take a print out from Google Maps with the measure line tool to our electoral services department.
Most electoral services services departments will also allow you to be eligible in two categories over the 12 months as long as there is direct cross over. E.g eligible because I lived within 3 miles for 6 months and then moved into the parish so became eligible due to living in the parish. It would be unreasonable to say I wasn't eligible because I switched categories (providing there wasn't a gap).
Unfortunately, reasonableness doesn't come into it. The rules are set by the Electoral Commission and the electoral services officers have absolutely no discretion.
A Parish Council used the same three mile principle  for allotments the Clerk then tried to evict someone not realising that the distance is measured as the crow flies not by the distance covered driving there
Post codes don’t follow County Boundaries so I doubt they follow Parish ones
One of our members has been co-opted onto a parish council more than 3 miles away from our parish boundary. Where can I find out whether the 3-mile rule was checked and applied correctly in this case?  Who would have checked and approved the co-option?
There are other criteria that qualify people standing apart from the three mile rule
So it really depends on your relationship with the Parish Council as to who and how you ask

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