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of Greater Whitbourne Page 5
Election plans begin
Council elections on May 5 may
seem a long way away, but for
those thinking of standing, either
for the parish council or for
Herefordshire Council, time is
relatively short. All seats on
parish councils in Herefordshire
are up for re-election, as are all
seats on Herefordshire Council.
Nominations need to be in by
April 4 and the Herefordshire
Association of Local Councils is
holding a meeting for all parish
clerks on February 8 when the
Electoral
Services
Manager/Deputy Returning
Officer will talk about the elections.
Colette Maund from
Herefordshire Council’s Electoral
Services section explained that
nomination packs will also be
made available for parish clerks
to take away, which will cover the
number of seats up for re-election.
Nomination packs will also be on
the Herefordshire Council website
for people to download, or
they can collect a nomination
pack from the Town Hall in
Hereford. The nomination papers
are slightly different for
Herefordshire Council and these
can also be downloaded from the
website or are available at the
Town Hall.
All nomination papers must be
received at the Elections Office at
Town Hall, St Owen Street,
Hereford, and they can start
coming in from Friday 25 March
to 12 noon on 4 April 2011. Any
nominations papers received
after 12 noon on 4 April will be
A new Localism Bill, going
through Parliament at the
moment, could bring extra powers
to local people and all levels
of local government.
invalid.
Anyone can be a parish councillor,
as long as they are 18 or
over, and either a British citizen,
a Commonwealth citizen, a citizen
of the Irish Republic or a citizen
of another European Union
State. They must also be either in
the list of electors for the parish
in which they are seeking a seat
or have, during the whole of the
preceding twelve months;
(i) occupied land as owner or tenant
in it, or
(ii) had a principal place of work
there, or
(iii) resided in or within three
miles of it.
New powers for local people
These will enable people to instigate
local referendums on any
issue, to approve or veto in a referendum
a council tax increase
deemed to be excessive, to
express an interest in running
local authority services and to
provide local community groups
The nomination packs also contain
detailed information on the
factors which may disqualify
someone from standing.
The cost of an election for the
parish is considerable – the table
below illustrates this in a breakdown
of expenses, for the election
to one seat on the parish
council in 2009.
We would like to offer those who
are standing for a seat, either
parish or main council, to send
us 150 words on why the voters
should choose them – this is
open to all candidates and we
will print their contributions in
the May magazine. All contributions
should be received by us by
April 10th, by e-mail please.
with an opportunity to bid to buy
assets of community value.
Details of the Bill can be found at
http://services.parliament.uk/bil
ls/2010-11/localism.html