Prominence of notices

Question

My local parish council has been forced to hold a parish poll which they didn't want to happen. There are multiple noticeboards in the parish but the notice of the poll only appears in one of them and is printed on A5 paper whilst all other notices are A4. The clerk has been asked why and to rectify and has responded to say there is limited space on the board, hence the smaller notice. Most of the notices are for meetings that have already happened and should have been removed by now.
It feels like it is a deliberate act to minimise awareness and/or importance of the poll. Are there any rules regarding this?

Answer 1

The council (as the employer) can direct that the clerk work in a specific way but if, as you say, the council don't want the poll anyway it is unlikely that they would even want to give specific direction to the employee in this regard.

Whilst it may seem (and it may even be) a petty attempt to minimise (quite literally) the publication of the notice, there is nothing to stop any interested party taking to social media to spread the word more broadly.

A member of public wouldn't have any recourse to try and encourage better publication or working practice by the clerk - other than by raising the question to the council.

Comments

I suspected that was the case. Some of the things that have been happening recently are shameful. I'm not a member of that council any more and I'm still embarrassed by what has become of it. Thank you for the response.

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There’s a lot of it about unfortunately….

Answer 2

The only requirement is that a notice is displayed in the parish not less than five days before the poll, and also on the District Council website and in their offices.

Nothing to stop you pinning up as many posters as you can around the parish.