What is the likely cost of a parish council election of 7 members in the normal cycle of elections - 2025.

Question

We are a very small parish council of 7 members with an electorate just on the cusp of 150. We are looking at our forthcoming budget, which has a EMR of £4k for election costs. Is this realistic or over the top? If realistic, what can be done by either councillors or members of the parish to reduce these costs?

Answer 1

Is it all one slate or different Wards ? Personally I’d ask the Borough Council for an estimate and base the reserve on that

My own PC includes election costs as expenditure every single year as a way of padding the figures out despite having a general reserve in the region of £300,000 and only ever having one election in one Ward in the last 30 odd years !

Answer 2

Our elections office are happy to provide an estimate for the cost of an election at a time other than when the full district elections take place.  It is horrifyingly expensive!  At the last count, we were quoted something in the region of £7,500 but that was a couple of years ago and that's per election so if just one person resigns or leaves and there's a call for an election, that's what they propose charging.  God forbid if more than one resigns at a separate time and there's a call for another election!  However, we do have an electorate of 3,000!  For an uncontested election (but note, election not co-option) it's £500.  I think it depends on your principal authority.

Answer 3

I would agree that you get a quote from your Elections Office as a steer but bear in mind that at any time a councillor resigns, then someone can call a by-election so this could happen on multiple occasions in the same year.  Of course, that is if you have someone wanting to cause maximum grief to the parish council at a cost to the electorate.

On a separate note - it is amazing that you have 7 Councillors for a 150 electorate - we have 15 Councillors for 4800....