By-election ‘leaves a nasty taste’

CALLING a by-election to fill Paul Allen’s vacant town council seat is disrespectful, according to angry Tories.

Mr Allen, former Mayor of Sevenoaks, died in June, aged 72, from a rare lung condition. An election is being held on September 2 to find a replacement councillor for his Town ward seat.

But the Conservatives say spending £5,000 on the ballot, when another is due in May anyway, is a waste of money and “leaves a nasty taste in the mouth”.

They say the opposition Liberal Democrats are instigating a needless poll that would barely change the make-up of a council the Tories control by ten to five.

Councillor Richard Parry said: “I think it’s a gross misuse of public money. They might say you can’t put a price on democracy but we could have carried on one councillor down, or co-opted a member of the public instead, for the next few months.

“It makes no difference to the council, unless they bring in some great visionary.”

He added: “We don’t want to charge people this sort of money. This is money we could be spending on hanging baskets or road salt for the winter.

“It’s not in the budget. Our annual precept from council taxpayers is £750,000.”

Councillor Ann Dawson said: “If we’ve got a Liberal Democrat-Conservative coalition in the national government, I would expect the local Liberal Democrats to work with us for the sake of a few months.

“There was always going to be an election in May anyway and I think it leaves a nasty taste in the mouth of Paul Allen’s memory.”

Ian Bigwood, the electoral services manager at Sevenoaks District Council, estimates the poll will cost £5,000. An election is triggered once ten voters call for one – and the first names on the list were Liberal Democrat councillors Roger and Pam Walshe.

Town councillor Mrs Walshe said: “There have always been by-elections and it’s a price worth paying.

“If May was six months away, maybe we would wait, but this is much further away than that. To go from June to May without a councillor is quite a long time.

“We have to give people the opportunity to get involved. There are so many big issues in the town.”