There is a vacancy for a councillor to represent the Wilmslow West Ward on the Town Council.
The vacancy has arisen following the resignation of Oliver Romain who was elected in May 2019. Oliver resigned on September 3rd having decided to relocate to the Scottish Highlands.
He told wilmslow.co.uk "We have enjoyed living in Wilmslow for the last fifteen years, it's a great place to live and fantastic community.
"Whilst on holiday in the Scottish Highlands last August, we fell in love with the area and decided to move there. We chose Aberfeldy, which is a small town in Highland Perthshire.
"It has been an honour to serve as a town councillor, however, due to the the move, I have now resigned from my position. I wish the council the best for the future and good luck to the candidates in the forthcoming election."
He added "Moving home and my business was a little challenging during lockdown, I clocked up 12,000 miles of van driving, however, we are now settled in to life here and couldn't be happier."
An election to fill the vacancy will be held if ten electors from the Electoral area give notice to the Returning Officer requesting such an election within 14 days (excluding Saturdays Sundays, Christmas Eve, Christmas Day, Good Friday or a Bank Holiday) of the date of the notice (October 5th)
The address of the Returning Officer is:
The Returning Officer
Cheshire East Council
Westfields
Middlewich Road
Sandbach
CW11 1HZ
If no such notice is given Wilmslow Town Council will fill the vacancy by co-option.
Comments
Here's what readers have had to say so far. Why not add your thoughts below.
The ward already has three councillors who can continue to cover for Oliver, whose attendance over the past two years has been very poor (even when our meetings went onto Zoom). It is also disappointing it took him six months since moving to Scotland to resign and only weeks before his prolonged non-attendance would have triggered his automatic removal.
Wilmslow West is a particularly large ward and with only 18 months before the full elections in May 2023, we do not think it is worth the £10,000 cost to taxpayers to run this bye-election.
However, we will be contesting this seat in May 2023 and would like to speak with anyone interested in joining the council. RoW hopes to win control of the council in May 2023 and to make it a far more proactive and dynamic organisation. So get in touch for an informal chat about the commitment and skills needed to be a successful councillor and the difference you can make to the town.
Contact details are on http://www.wilmslowtowncouncil.gov.uk
Cllr Mark Goldsmith
Wilmslow West
Wilmslow Town Council
Contact details www.
It may make financial sense to the political party known as Residents of Wilmslow (RoW) not to call a by-election. However, the role of democracy has nothing to do with financial sense and I thought that the political party known as Residents of Wilmslow did not put party before people, but that their motto was people before party,
Anybody who wants to call an election should not be put off just because a political party thinks the democratic rights of others is less important than the financial cost involved in holding an election.
When I stood as an independent candidate for the Lacey Green ward in 2014, I was told by a then sitting conservative councillor that I had cost the council £3000. My response was that I hadn’t cost the council a penny. The cost was solely due to the resignation of a Conservative councillor. This time it's a Liberal Democrat councillor who has resigned. It is sad that it took them so long to do so, but that was their lawful right.
We live in a democracy, and anybody who wants to call an election should do so and should not be discouraged by fear of incrimination by others who do not agree with them,
I have made the choice to never join a political party and your comment makes me certain that I have made the correct choice.
ROW (and other) councillors do a lot of good work, but your post suggests to me that “the party” doesn’t always put people before the party. Ie it will cost the party money to run a campaign and they don’t want to do that with the elections of May 2023 happening in the not too distant future.
Cheshire East charges town and parish councils a set fee for by-elections, hence the £3,000 you were quoted in 2014 (it's now £4,000). Cheshire East then funds any costs over and above this amount. Wilmslow West is a very large ward with 8,000 voters, so the total cost to local tax payers will be around £10,000.
We simply believe this money is better spent on other services. If we put our party first, we would call the election (we have the funds and a candidate) and create a platform to promote ourselves.
However, only 22.5% of people voted at the recent Dean Row Cheshire East by-election and the public appetite for a Christmas town council election would likely be even lower. Regardless of who wins the seat, the town council will still have a Conservative majority and the ward would be serviced by four councillors instead of three.
Alternatively, the seat could be left vacant, or someone co-opted onto the council as has happened before. Both of which cost nothing.
I realise other parties or individuals are perfectly entitled to call the election though. We are just stating our position now to avoid any future speculation.
In May 2023, all the local councillor seats are up for re-election and we will contest them as normal. Voters can then decide if not calling this by-election is consistent with our ‘People Before Party’ philosophy or not.