Maximum Number of Co-opted Councillors?

Question

Is there a percentage of councillors that have to be elected. My local parish council has seven councillors. Due to people resigning it has reached the stage that we now only have one elected councillor

Answer 1

There is no requirement for a council to have any elected members, as long as the correct procedures have been followed for every vacancy.

Answer 2

Elections are every four years and the average time served for a volunteer councillor is sadly less than that. Holding elections more frequently is very expensive to the council.

Until there is a requirement to undertake a pre councillor training course you will always have this high turnover as the perceived insight into the role is often different to the actual role.

Some councillors join to support a specific campaign and then leave when it’s complete or thrown out however there are many long term councillors that have given many years of dedicated service and their knowledge and experience is something you don’t get out of a book or course

Comments

Clerk Gable, I'm newish very keen but met with hostility from the longer standing members.  I read in lots of other Parish Council information that new members are required.  But on joining a tight group new members are not welcomed especially when we have differing views of priorities.  I also find all the literature far too ambiguous and easily used incorrectly.  Concrete examples of use would improve the situation for all.