Skip to content

Long Ashton stuck in loop of elections without any candidates

Getty Images A man puts a ballot paper into a ballot boxGetty Images
Long Ashton Parish Council is in a cycle of re-running a by-election which nobody wants to stand for

A village has been stuck in a cycle of running elections without any candidates for more than a year, costing at least £700.

Long Ashton Parish Council has run eight by-elections which no-one has stood for, at a cost of £92 per time.

Rules dictate an election must be held if 10 or more electors call for one, and that is what happened when two councillors resigned in October 2021.

The situation will come to an end when full council elections are held in May.

Parish clerk, Hannah Harwood, said potentially people had been put off by "archaic" rules that required candidates to make the 20-mile trip to Weston-super-Mare and hand their nomination papers to North Somerset Council's offices.

Google Long Ashton Parish CouncilGoogle
Three members have been voted onto the council via a process called co-option since the by-election was called for

The issue is not even the lack of volunteers.

During the time the council has been rerunning the by-election, three new councillors have joined via co-option, according to the Local Democracy Reporting Service (LDRS).

New members can be voted on to the council at a meeting through a process called co-option, thus avoiding elections.

After the resignations in 2021, an election was called but only one person stood - John Ives, who was one of the councillors who had just stood down and he was re-elected but the other seat remained vacant.

"It is unusual to find a valid call for poll by 10 parish elector signatories without anybody then putting themselves forward as a candidate," said Philippa Penney, head of democratic and electoral services at North Somerset Council.

North Somerset Council Notice of electionNorth Somerset Council
The returning officer must continue to publish the the notice of election until the vacancy is filled

Ms Penney said according to election rules the returning officer must continue to re-publish the notice of election until the vacancy is filled.

"The situation that Long Ashton finds itself in is relatively rare," she added.

Until now there was no way to stop the loop unless someone stood for election to the seat but the process will reach its conclusion in May.

Full council elections being held will reset the situation because all of seats are up for election.

"The next election will be the last one because it will be the last one before the full council elections in May," said Ms Harwood.

Presentational grey line

Follow BBC West on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram. Send your story ideas to: [email protected]