Parish council was "illegal" (From Darlington and Stockton Times)

Parish council was "illegal"

6:23pm Monday 4th March 2013 in News By Mark Foster

A PARISH council is facing new elections – after operating “illegally” for almost two years.

The ten members of the council at Escrick near York have been temporarily replaced by a quorum of district councillors, following a technical error which calls for a fresh election.

After being voted into office, parish counclilors are supposed to sign a special declaration - but it recently became apparent that the ten at Escrick had failed to do so within the alloted period.

So four district councillor have been called in to oversee the formation of a new parish council, with an election due on March 28.

They have also gone back through the minutes of every parish council meeting since 2011 to confirm them as true and correct records.

One of the Selby district councillors, Elizabeth Casling, said: “Escrick is only a small parish council, so the big issue is that out of the precept of £11,000, the election will cost £2,000, which is something that we would wish to avoid if possible.

“I believe strongly it should have been picked up earlier. It’s an awful lot of fuss for something that could have been easily avoided and a shame for the village as unnecessary cost, but something has to be done to rectify it.”