Urgent opinions. Election Announcement

Question

Due to councillor resignations our Town council are holding and election rather than co-option (Not my favorite method). At full council we decided NOT to  spend £2000 on having Polling cards distributed, the  election has been published online on websites  and on Facebook. Today I created a verbatim A4 poster of the District Councils Announcement on their web site of the election, attempting to be open and transparent, I took the poster to the Town Clerk and said  "as a non councillor and resident of our town" I am going to produce this poster to let everyone know we have an election on 6th Feb and NO polling cards will be sent.....The poster has both candidates   by name on it, is not partisan in anyway. It is targeted to those  in the town that do not use  Facebook, Visit our town council website, or use the internet at all. Both candidates are producing flyers as well. I was told that I could NOT do so as it may be seen as biased. !!!! I have written to the returning officer at district for  guidance. What are your thoughts . I just want  all our residents to have an opportunity to  use their franchise and vote for whom ever they choose.

Answer 1

By law, the council has to hold an election if 10 people I  your parish have requested it following the resignation or death of a councillor. The Parish Council doesn't get to decide. Co option can only occur if 10 people dont request an election.

As long as you spend less than £750 you can be a third party campaigner and out up your own poster.

Put your name and address at the bottom as the publisher and promoter and the name and address of the printing company (unless you printed themselves).

"Published, Promoted and Printed by John Smith, 1 High Street, Town, Post Code."

However, they MUST not be displayed in any charity premises (charity shop or village hall), though the official notices can be.

Comments

My problem is that the text is an exact copy from the District  council announcement, I am happy to  put Published ,Promoted printed by me on it, but I am only promoting the election not the candidates.

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If you print the pdf version from the district council, you can put that up wherever you like.

If you make your 'own' version even if a good copy and paste then the campaigner rules would apply.

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ok thanks,but I can do it if I do the  P.P.P yes

Answer 2

What do you actually mean by "polling cards"?  If the election is organised by the Principal Authority (PA), they would have to distribute Official polling cards for voters and bill the PC for them.  Likewise for those who choose a postal Vote.  Notice of the Election has to be given by the PA.  I don't see how your PC could decide to circumvent this, or how they could enforce an election when insufficeint voters have asked the PA to hold one.

Comments

The Town Council voted not to ask the PA to issue  Polling cards as it saved £2000. Relying on our local town council monthly newsletter and the candidates flyers. this taken from the notice......
To cast your vote, you will need to live in the parish of **********. The polling station will
be located at the *********  ****** ********* *******. Poll cards will
not be sent out for this election........Postal votes were issued.
The issue now is that 31/2 days prior to the election some of the news letters have not been delivered, ergo I as a responsible elected councillor wanted our Town Clerk thru me to put up some posters, giving an un biased information about the forthcoming the election, making a verbatim copy of the official announcement from our District Council and reducing down to the essential easy read parts ie  Preamble,  there is an election for  a vacancy the 2 candidates  the  location of Polling station and No poll cards will be issued. It was refused on the grounds  that it would show  Biase !!!!