Shilton Parish Council Elections - 3 May

Well, actually there won't be any elections for Shilton Parish Council this year, as when the closing date came and went for residents to submit their nomination papers to stand for election, six people submitted their forms for the seven vacant posts. Which means that, much in the tradition of Shilton specifically - and parish councils generally - these six people will be elected unopposed on 3 May to sit as members of the council for the next two years.

To be fair, it was always going to be a stretch to hope that eight or more people would be interested, seeing as there hadn't been a parish election in living memory. Coupled with one existing vacancy on the council, and the fact that two current councillors (Ron Lissaman and Mike Randall) had decided to retire in May, it was a case of running just to stand still!

Fortunately, it seems that a leaflet through every house in the parish, and a well attended Annual Parish Meeting that was brought forward to give added promotion to the upcoming elections, did enough to encourage two new people to come forward and volunteer to stand as parish councillors. Tantalizingly, two other people had also expressed some interest in standing, which would've resulted in a contested election in May, but they obviously decided against it in the end for their own reasons.

So, the public-spirited six are..... Gary Brindley, Bill King, David Redgrave, Kelly Smith, Stephen White and myself.

Still, six parish councillors is a lot better than the four it could've been, and we must look at this as 'work in progress' towards Thursday 1 May 2014 when we will finally have a proper election!!

For anyone who is interested, this is the 'Statement of Persons Nominated', published by Rugby Borough Council, that confirms the nominations for Shilton Parish Council that have been validly received:

(Click on the image to view bigger)