PARISH COUNCIL ELECTION MAY 2015

Every 4 years a new Parish Council is elected and the next such event will take place on Thursday May 7th 2015 (together with a District Council Election and a Parliamentary General Election).

The current Parish Council will cease to exist on May 6th and any Reach resident (subject to some restrictions) can put their name forward for election. If there are seven or less nominations, then the election will be uncontested (all those nominated will be elected) but if there are more than seven nominations then a formal election will take place on May 7th.

The Parish Council is the foundation of democracy in this country and it is for the good of us all that we have as strong a council as possible. Ideally, that means a group of people who individually will have their different areas of knowledge and experience but who, as a group, can make the right decisions for the good of Reach residents.

The job is not onerous - Parish Council meetings normally last a maximum of a couple of hours and occur just once a month.

Prospective candidates can learn more about this election by downloading Nomination Papers and Candidates Consent Forms from the ECDC website.

Parish nominations can be accepted from Monday 30th March 2015 through to the close of nominations at 4pm on Thursday 9th April 2015. All nomination papers must be hand delivered to the council offices and an interview room will be made available for people to be seen without making an appointment.

ECDC encourages candidates to pass their nomination papers to the Parish Clerk so that they can be delivered en bloc by hand, by the Clerk. If there is a problem with any of the papers, they will contact the candidate directly by telephone. For the Clerk to do this, she would require your papers to be with her by 6.00pm on Thursday 2nd April.

Obviously, should a candidate wish to deliver their papers in person, that is entirely acceptable - within the deadline limits stated above.

ECDC do not recommend posting any of the forms, as during this time period, there will be several large mailings by Royal Mail across the country and delays may occur.

If you are interested in becoming a councillor and have any questions, please give Susan Bailey (Parish Clerk) a call on 743794 or email reachparishcouncil@live.co.uk.