Multiple resignations at parish council leads to borough authority stepping in to keep it running

Five members have quit Hopton and Coton Parish Council this year, leaving just two remaining.

The council is required to have at least three members present in order to make decisions. But following the departure of four councillors in March and April one of the remaining members was unable to attend meetings – and a fifth resignation happened in June.

The parish includes the former Staffordshire University halls of residence at Beaconside proposed to become temporary accommodation for hundreds of asylum seekers.

The controversial application for Stafford Court submitted by Serco has met with more than 250 objections and was due to be considered by Stafford Borough Council’s planning committee this week.

The reasons for the resignations have not been made public.

But the Local Democracy Reporting Service (LDRS) understands they are not connected with the Stafford Court proposals.

Last week the borough authority agreed to appoint two of its own councillors – Frances Beatty and Andrew Harp – to serve on the parish council as a temporary measure until new members can be elected. The next parish council election is due to be held on May 4 2023.

It is not the first time Stafford Borough Council has used its discretionary power under the Local Government Act to assist a parish with insufficient councillors. In early 2020 all five members of Creswell Parish Council quit within the space of a few weeks and three borough councillors were appointed to oversee it as a temporary measure until the May 2021 elections.

Borough council leader Patrick Farrington, speaking at this month’s full meeting, said: “A similar issue arose in relation to Creswell Parish Council. Unfortunately, once a quorum falls below a certain number, a parish council is not able to operate.

“It’s up to the borough council to decide whether or not to intervene. In terms of enabling Hopton and Coton Parish Council to continue its business, the proposal is to enable it to carry on by temporary appointments.

“It is proposed that Councillors Beatty and Harp are appointed as temporary parish councillors until the next election, which is due to take place next May. Because the parish council is not quorate it is not able to carry out all the functions; for example it has financial responsibilities, it needs to be able to take decisions around payments and extant requirements.”

But Councillor Angela Loughran said: “I’m not quite sure why we feel obliged to prop up a parish council when the residents in that area don’t seem interested in having a parish council. If you look at the number of parish councillors who have resigned and you can’t even get sufficient numbers from the community I’m not really convinced we should provide support for it.

“Maybe they don’t even want a parish council and we are forcing them to carry on.”

Councillor Beatty responded: “The parish council is very conscious of the responsibilities that they have got and they are trying to put together the set of new councillors as well as the old ones as we speak. There are very important issues that are involved around Hopton and Coton at the moment; one is HS2 and we’ve got the big application by Serco.

“There have been numerous areas of discussion that have had to be adjourned, so it’s very important the parish council is there and in existence to represent the interests of its community. I think Andrew and I would be very happy to serve as long as we’re needed, not necessarily until May, because I do have confidence that the parish council will re-constitute itself as soon as it can.”

Councillor Jack Kemp, who served as an interim parish councillor for Creswell, said: “I have sympathy with Councillor Beatty. I know there are two other councillors in this chamber that haven’t been asked to serve and I’m very pleased the council didn’t decide to ask for a nomination from this side.

“I sympathise with what is happening and I wish them well. Let’s hope they don’t have the same experience that we had.”

Councillor Mark Winnington said: “Creswell had a blip and I think it sounds like there is another blip. This council does a fantastic job providing some really good substitute councillors short term.

“It’s almost like a safety net for democracy in local areas. Creswell is firing on all cylinders now.”