Our clerk has sent emails to election candidates,, before the election has taken place.

Question

These are not currently councillors, but election nominees. This is council business not yet discussed  at council.is this acceptable or appropriate ?

Answer 1

Your Clerk has jumped the gun here. If there are fewer candidates than seats on the Council, the candidates will be duly elected unopposed on election day, but they are currently no different from any other member of the public.

Comments

As I understand it the paperwork accepting the position can be signed as soon as it’s established there’s no election required so if that’s been done I honestly don’t see the problem as long as no decisions are made in advance of the first meeting

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An incoming councillor can't accept the position until it's vacated by the outgoing councillor, otherwise you'll have too many councillors. The legislation is Section 83(4) which states:

"A person elected to the office of chairman of a parish or community council or parish or community councillor shall—
(a) in the case of the chairman, at the meeting at which he is elected;
(b) in the case of a councillor, before or at the first meeting of the parish or community council after his election...
...make in the presence of a member of the council or of the proper officer of the council and deliver to the council a declaration of acceptance of office"

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Thank you, there will be an election, (more nominees than seats) and the information that has been sent out is both sensitive and confidential.

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If it is genuinely sensitive and confidential - such that would ordinarily qualify as necessary to exclude the press and public from the meeting where it was discussed  - then it really is inappropriate that it should have been shared outside of the appropriately qualified sensitivity caveat.
The “seriousness” of the transgression rather depends upon - and should be judged by - the degree of sensitivity and confidentiality of the information. It could range from a discussion to gross misconduct.
If it is a sensitive and confidential contract issue for example, it is now shared with people that are NOT (yet - maybe ever). Bound by the CoC to maintain that confidentiality.

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Then my comments don’t apply and your Clerk should be addressed about this and the facts established for example was anyone else involved ?

Answer 2

Existing councillors retire and the newly elected councillors take over on 9th May but if there's an uncontested election, the newly elected councillors (including those returning) will now be known.  Paperwork etc. can't be signed until 9th May at the earliest but there's no issue with contacting people now to welcome them and provide some basic information such as the date of the first meeting for example.

Answer 3

A rare departure from ‘formality’ for me but….

You haven’t given any detail of the nature of the information which has been distributed. Assuming the nature of the information is ‘general’ rather than sensitive or confidential, you could ask your clerk to adopt an uncommon but wholly reasonable and proactive approach of PUBLISHING the information sent to prospective Cllrs to EVERYONE! Put it on the notice board and website - get council information out into the public domain. It could be the start of a brave new world of openness, transparency and public engagement. It could even be maintained as the new ops normal after the election….

Just a thought like…