A PARISH councillor has been elected uncontested to a Warndon Parish Council seat that had been requested for a by-election at a cost £6,000 of public money.
Independent Jan Scrine has been announced as the winner of Warndon South after a notice of an uncontested seat, published on the parish council's website, was issued by Worcester City Council.
The new parish councillor has effectively been elected to the role by default as no other nominees came forward. Had other nominees stood the by-election would have taken place in November, as a 10 people request threshold was reached.
After Richard Manser stood down a vacancy was announced for Warndon South last month, and the seat then became the centre of the by-election costs controversy.
On Thursday the Worcester News reported two prominent councillors had denied they were amongst those who requested the by-election.
City council leader Marc Bayliss and city and county councillor for Warndon Andy Roberts, both Conservatives, denied they were the ‘M Bayliss’ and ‘AC Roberts’ named in the list of 10 people who wrote to the returning officer.
But they both did speak in favour of holding elections over co-opting new councillors when contacted by the paper.
Jan Scrine had previously unsuccessful stood for election to the parish council during the full parish councils elections held last May. At the time, according to documents published by the Returning Officer, she was nominated by Andrew C Roberts, and Francs E Roberts.
Meanwhile a source close to the parish council has told this paper that at least one independent who considered standing for election decided against "to avoid the contested election costs".
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And our source says one of the independents who decided not to run is a former unsuccessful candidate who contested the May Warndon parish council elections.
The parish’s last by-election was for Warndon North last December that cost the parish council £6,000 and yet saw only a seven per cent turnout – 304 voters of a possible 4,111.
BREAKING: Independent candidate Jan Scrine has been elected onto Warndon Parish Council uncontested, meaning no expensive election process. Interesting note: her assenters when she unsuccessfully stood during the full May elections were Andy and Frances Roberts @worcesternews pic.twitter.com/RHMLPoiB5I
— Ryan Merrifield (@rmerrifieldWN) October 18, 2019
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