Town Council defers co-option of new members

FRODSHAM Town Council has put off co-opting three councillors to fill vacancies on the council until its September meeting.
The decision was taken at the July meeting after the council split 5-5 on the issue and the Mayor, Cllr Liam Jones – standing-in for absent chairman Cllr Alan Oulton – used his casting vote.
It was a decision that angered some councillors.
Cllr Pat Williamson said she was embarrassed and believed people who had attended the meeting as candidates for co-option were entitled to an apology.
They had put themselves to some inconvenience to attend.
Cllr Caroline Ashton said she was “appalled.”
She also believed people had gone to some trouble to attend and would now have the inconvenience of attending again in September.
It was noted thare had been four applicants for the three vacancies – two for Overton and Five Crosses ward, one for Waterside Ward and one who had not specified a ward. There was no applicant for Castle Park ward.
Cllr Andrew Dawson moved the proposal to defer the co-option until September.
He said he knew of at least two people who had not known about the opportunity to put themselves forward until it was too late to do so.
The council had not advertised the vacancies as widely as it could have done and, as a result, many people did not know about them.
They had used only the council website and notice boards, but many people were not online and did not look at notice boards.
Cllrs Judith Critchley and Mallie Poulton also spoke in favour of deferring the co-option until next month.
The three vacancies, one each in the Waterside, Castle and Overton and Five Crosses wards, arise because of a shortage of candidates in the three wards in the May elections.

*Pictured: Mayor Cllr Liam Jones, who used his casting vote, and Deputy Mayor Cllr Caroline Ashton, who said she was “appalled.”

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4 Comments

  1. Cllr Dawson and those who voted for the delay in Co-Operation did so with a hidden agenda. The proposal to delay the Co-Option was rushed through before other Councillors knew what was happening. A disgraceful way to treat the ladies who had taken the time to ensure that their applications were in on time. I would actually suggest that the proposal went against FTC’s Standing Orders. Even if this doesn’t prove to be the case the treatment of residents was disgraceful and Caroline Ashton was absolutely right to be appalled

  2. Typical of the previous council. They have hidden agendas and are to self centered. If people claim to of not known about the co-opt taking place I question of they are really that interested anyway. Of it had been a local election the “interested” candidate’s would of been told your to late come back in 5 years. We shall have to see who these interested people are or is this another scheme to scupper other agenda items? No wonder the council have vacancies!

  3. Wow! Just Wow!
    The Council surely put the Agenda out in addition to the notices, and as said by Diane McNamara if people want to be a Councillor they would (should) read them. Sorry to say but that was a very poor decision

  4. I do wonder how people are going to be able to represent the interests of the residents of the proposed wards, if they do not go online, look at noticeboards or check the council websites, will they get all of their updates through Cllr Dawson or will they then be expected to check the fore-mentioned methods of communication? No wonder the council is a laughing stock.

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