A majority of our parish councillors have been co-opted. Is this legal?

Question

Apart from one of our parish councillors all the rest have been co-opted. So 9 out of 10 that is.

So the co-opters are co-opting the others on as councillors resign. We have not had an election for over thirty years

Is this legal on both points??

Our PC is in total disarray with a majority being part of a 'gentlemans club' with the ladies on the PC being literally ignored, direspected, bullied etc

Answer 1

Yes, it is lawful for a parish council to consist totally of coopted councillors, although this is certainly not ideal.

Your remedies depend entirely on the willingness of more people to become councillors. When a casual vacancy arises, a poll will be arranged if it is requested by 10 or more electors (acting either together or individually). Although the poll will not take place unless there are more candidates than vacancies. Unfortunately the parish will bear the cost of the poll in this situation.

Every four years there will be an election for the entire council - although, again, whether there will be a poll depends on there being more candidates than seats. Putting up as a candidate is a very simple process and the officers of the election authority (usually the district council) are usually very helpful. The parish will not pay for this poll.

Comments

Thanks for that. I received this from a clerk via SLCC the  Essential Clerk p10: A council determines that it is eligible at a full council meeting "if it meets two criteria: it must have a qualified clerk Aand two thirds of the councillors must have stood for election rather than being co-opted.
Who is right? Thank you

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There is no conflict. The eligibility referred to relates to the general power of competence, a scheme that is described at http://www.local.gov.uk/c/document_library/get_file?uuid=83fe251c-d96e-44e0-ab41-224bb0cdcf0e.
By no means all councils are eligible, and not all eligible councils choose to exercise the option. My answer to the question refers to the legal situation that applies to all town and parish councils, and correctly states the situation

Answer 2

LGA 1972 s16(1) now states that PC must have 5 elected members

Comments

As I understand it, for this purpose, a co-opted member is an elected member.

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Well I nearly jumped for joy when woodwinders replied. So really it is the 'wording' of the law that makes these decisions so difficult to follow and action. We ahve our PC elections this May and it looks like the 'old clique' will be back in as we 'probably' won't have an election because1985 was the last time we had an election where there were more nominees than seats; if that makes sense. So they will be co-opted back on. Surely something needs to be done to tighten up the rules and regulations; it just seems so full of holes and give ways for the 'not nice people' to hide behind!

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To the best of my knowledge the provisions referred to by woodwinders are not in force and not likely to be. I'm afraid there is no substitute for finding good candidates who are willing to stand for election.