As Ventnorians will know, one of the councillors resigned from the Ventnor Town Council recently, leaving a position available for the Ventnor West Ward.
We called John Farrant, the Town Clerk, today to get the lowdown on how the process of electing a new member goes.
Officially it all kicks off this Friday (5th October) with the advertisement of the availability which will be on the notice board in the Winter Gardens and the board near the park, opposite the bus stop.
For there to be an election, 10 or more people on the register of electorate who live within the boundaries of the West Ward will need to contact the Returning Officer at County Hall, by 25th October, requesting an election.
If this doesn’t occur, a councillor will need to be co-opted onto the council, without an election.
If an election is requested, the Returning Officer will commence the normal election process, starting with the notice of election.
Once candidate nomination papers have been received and collated, a venue for the election will be found – probably the Winter Gardens – and the voting day set for 7-10 days hence.
Within about 6 weeks of now there should be a new councillor for Ventnor West.
All sound pretty straight forward, but with a few people talking about putting themselves forward as candidates, it could turn out to be be quite exciting.
