What grounds do a Parsh Council need in order to refuse an applcation to take up a place on the Council?

Question

One of our Councillors resigned after only two meetings, then subsequently bombarded the Council with FOI questions and emails to such an exent that our Clerk had sleepless nights. We have two vacancies now to fill by co-option and that same perosn has come forward for re-appoitment. We have only two applicants for the two vacancies. Can the Council refuse this person's application, and, if so, on what grounds?

Answer 1

This person sounds like s/he is vexatious, in which case the best place for them is on the council where they are controlled by the Code of Conduct and neutralised by the voting system since s/he will perhaps always be in a minority of one. Co-opt them ASAP is my advice. Frequent trivial FOI requests can be declared vexatious too, but the way to avoid them is to put all parish matters on a web site. Why not? You are not running the West Wing or the Kremlin War Cabinet and there really is very little confidential material unless yours is a large council with many employees and contracts. The clerk should be organised in such a way as to make responding to FOI requests a matter of pressing a few keys on the computer. That aspect of clerking is not going away. If anything it will get worse, and then there is the GDPR coming up!

To answer your question though, I believe any uncontested offer of co-option should be accepted for fear of appearing prejudice and packing the council with cronies. Also see this site's answer to this of 2013 https://towncouncillor.com/629/parish-council-candidate-single-vacancy-consider-unsuitable