The background for the Arlesey community governance review consultation
Consultation closed: Tuesday 14 June 2022
Consultation opened: Wednesday 20 April 2022
Some smaller parishes often struggle to attract enough candidates to stand for election. This can result in uncontested elections, where no vote is required because there are sufficient seats for all candidates. In some cases, parishes may need to co-opt members to fill vacancies. Co-opting involves appointing members to the council rather than them being democratically elected.
Arlesey Town Council’s membership was last reviewed in 2017/18, reducing the number of councillors from 15 to 12. However, at the parish elections in May 2019, only four nominations were received. As a result, we were required to appoint (co-opt) three Arlesey ward councillors to Arlesey Town Council, bringing the total to seven members.
We needed to co-opt councillors to ensure the town council meetings met the ‘quorum’—the minimum number of councillors needed to make decisions. This ensures that decision-making does not fall to a single person. For Arlesey Town Council, a quorum example would be having four of the seven councillors present in order to pass a motion at a committee meeting.
We viewed the co-opting of our councillors as a temporary solution until more of the vacancies could be filled. However, the three co-opted councillors continue to serve on the town council.