Town Council By Election on Cards and will Cost Town Thousands to Hold

Mr Thomson when he resigned in January claimed he was unable to carry out the mandate he was elected on in May 2023 through Penrith Town Council. Mr Thomson also said “When a council can 'co opt' a candidate who came last (west ward elections May 2023) onto the council through a councillors-only 'secret' ballot, that is not democracy.”

The notice of vacant posted by the town council today triggered a fourteen-day period where registered voters in the Penrith West ward can call for an election to be held by 10 registered voters submitting a petition to hold a by election to fill the vacant town council seat.

If no petition is received by the returning officer of Westmorland and Furness Council by the end of the 14 days, then the town council can fill the vacant seat through cooption where councillors appoint a new councillor to fill the vacancy.

If voters in Penrith West that covers Castletown and Brunswick Road and parts of the bottom of Town Head call for a by election by submitting a petition in the next 14 Days.

A by election is forecast to cost in the region of £10,000 to hold for the Penrith West Ward if called for that would have to be paid for in full by Penrith Town Council from its annual budget via the council tax precept.

In the May 2023 Penrith West election of the 2236 registered voters in the ward eligible to vote only 496 voted with a turnout for the Penrith West Ward on the town council of just 22.2%.

Four Candidates stood in the ward in May 2023 with Three elected including Mr Thomson and the losing candidate was co-opted in July 2023 onto the town council to fill a vacant seat in the Penrith East Ward.

Over the last 5 years the town council now in its 9^th Year since it was created in 2015 has seen a number of resignations and vacant seats that have been filled through a mix of cooption and by elections including one that only one candidate stood and was elected by default as the only candidate in August 2022.

The vacant seat comes amid growing calls for a community governance review of Penrith with some calling for the disbanding of the town council and creation of smaller and it’s claimed more cost efficient parish councils across the six areas of the town including parish councils for areas like Carleton and Castletown. Mr Thomson is among those calling for the scrapping of the Town Council.