Uncontested Parish Council Results – No Parish Councils Face a Vote-off

Published on: 17 Apr, 2023
Updated on: 18 Apr, 2023

In addition to the uncontested parish council election results in the Ash Wards, already reported, Guildford Borough Council has announced the results of the other parish council uncontested elections listed in alphabetic order below.

See: Independent Members Will Outnumber the Tories on Ash Parish Council

No parish council seats are being contested at the elections on May 4.

A GBC press release stated: “We publish these [results] when the number of candidates nominated for election to a parish council is the same as, or fewer than, the number of seats on the parish council. All the nominated candidates are automatically elected.

“Parish Councils have 35 working days from Thursday, 4 May 2023 to co-opt people for any outstanding vacancies.”

In a previous version of this article, it was incorrectly reported that the Albury Parish Council result would be contested. This was incorrect we apologise for our error and are grateful to GBC for pointing it out. The Albury result has been added. There were five nominations for nine vacancies.

There are four vacancies unfilled.

There are two vacancies unfilled.

There are three vacancies unfilled.

There are two vacancies unfilled.

There is one vacancy unfilled.

There are two vacancies unfilled.

There are no vacancies unfilled.

There is one vacancy unfilled.

There are no vacancies unfilled.

There is one vacancy unfilled.

There are three vacancies unfilled.

There are no vacancies unfilled.

There is one vacancy unfilled.

There is no vacancy unfilled.

There are two vacancies unfilled.

There is one vacancy unfilled.

There are no vacancies unfilled.

There are two vacancies unfilled.

There are no vacancies unfilled.

There is one vacancy unfilled.

There are two vacancies unfilled.

There is one vacancy unfilled.

There are no vacancies unfilled.

Responses to Uncontested Parish Council Results – No Parish Councils Face a Vote-off

Jim Allen Reply

April 15, 2023 at 10:37 am

It is a sign of a failed democracy when there are more seats than candidates.

What has caused this collapse in democracy within Guildford borough? I’d be interested to hear views as to why this is occuring.
David Roberts Reply

April 18, 2023 at 4:30 pm

Local democracy is in a sad state all round, with a UK average voter turnout of 36 per cent (a 2021 figure from the House of Commons library) the lowest in Europe. Many things are to blame:

– mobile lifestyles and people’s detachment from where they live;

– the overly complex structure of local government, with its various tiers and general lack of directly elected and accountable executives;

– the collapse of civic pride and sense of local belonging evident a hundred years ago;

– the undermining of local authorities by central government who now hold all the purse strings;

– unnecessary politicisation stemming from the takeover of local politics by national parties since the 1960s;

– austerity and the feeling that councils struggle now to provide even basic services;

– the collapse of a free, independent local press resourced to report and investigate local events, including scandals;

– David Cameron’s abolition of the Audit Commission and, with it, national standards of conduct;

– the economic homogenisation of towns across the country and the loss of local identity produced by globalisation;

– public cynicism about politics in general, amplified by populists, and conspiracists on social media with far bigger traction than democratically elected public servants.
- George Potter Reply
  
  April 18, 2023 at 7:49 pm
  
  There is not a single party political candidate standing for any of the parish councils in Guildford. So how exactly is the “takeover of local politics by national political parties” to blame for all of the parish council elections being uncontested?
  
  If the involvement of political parties put people off local elections then surely we would have lots of contested elections for the apolitical parishes, rather than every single candidate being elected unopposed which is what has actually just happened.
  
  George Potter is a Lib Dem candidate for Burpham in the forthcoming GBC election.
  
  Editor’s comment: There are three Ash parish councillors who have described themselves as Conservatives.
John Perkins Reply

April 19, 2023 at 10:07 am

David Roberts has provided a fairly comprehensive list. I would only add three more points, in support of the claim of public cynicism:

1. Borough councils almost invariably increased council tax by the smallest fraction under the cap to avoid holding a referendum and sometimes exceeded that by transferring responsibilities to parish councils, which were not subject to the cap. People are not fooled so easily.

2. Multi-member wards are undemocratic in that groups able to put up multiple candidates will gain more seats. Put another way, it means those with more resources will gain more seats. People quickly learn that national parties often gain seats despite other candidates being more popular.

3. There is a report today in one of the national newspapers in which an unnamed Guildford managing director tops the list of highest remunerated local authority employees, being paid £607,633. People might prefer that money to be spent on filling potholes. [Editors response: Please see our article – Daily Mail Online Reports Guildford Has Highest-paid Council Officer]