Snodland Town Council by-election - the facts.

On Thursday 19th January, there will be a by-election in the Snodland West & Holborough Lakes ward to fill the vacancy on Snodland Town Council.

Some of you may have seen claims on social media that the local Conservatives didn't want a by-election (which is true), and that this is because we are anti-democratic and just wanted to fill the vacancy with another Conservative (which is not true).

We think it's important to be clear and factual - so here are the facts about the by-election:

When a "casual vacancy" occurs on a Parish (or in our case, Town) Council, the normal course of events is that the council fills the vacancy by "co-option". This is common practice and happens in parishes and towns across the country. The main reason for this is that by-elections are very expensive and they must be paid for by the council which has the vacancy. This additional expenditure always ends up being paid for by local residents.

On the day the people of Snodland gathered to pay their respects to Anne Moloney, whose untimely death resulted in the vacancy, the Snodland Lib Dems delivered the paperwork calling an election which will cost Snodland tax-payers between £8,000 and £10,000.

Via the parish element of the Council Tax, the residents of Snodland West & Holborough Lakes hand over about £150,000 a year to the Town Council. To use over £8,000 of this to pay for a by-election means that either money cannot be spent on other services in Snodland, or that the Town Council will need to put up its Council Tax charge by over 5%. 

Neither of these is fair to the residents of Snodland.

Of course, we all support democracy, but we also support the residents of Snodland being able to keep their hard-earned money.

The irony of this election being called is that it is only being supported by a party whose candidates, at the last election in the same ward, came 13th, 14th and 15th in a field of 15.

The last time a vacancy occurred on Snodland Town Council, in 2013, it was filled by co-option. I know this, because I was the co-optee. This might lead people to think that the Lib Dems are right, and the Snodland Conservatives picked "one of their own", as has been claimed, but this isn't true either. 

At the time, three people put themselves forward to be co-opted without even mentioning their party affiliation, and the Council chose the person that they thought would make the best Councillor. In fact, I had been a Lib Dem councillor between 1995 and 2011, so the Conservatives had very little reason to support me. After joining the Town Council I saw that the Conservatives were doing a fantastic job of running local services and I was pleased to be asked to stand as a Conservative in the 2015 local election.

So, although we are disappointed that there is going to be a by-election, we will take part and we will fight hard to win. We hope that the residents of Snodland will continue to support us and elect another Conservative to be part of the team that will work hard to continue to improve Snodland and make it an even better place to live.

David Lettington