2015 – 2018 MUSICAL CHAIRS

Desborough held ‘All out’ elections for the Town Council on the 5th May 2015.  Local people elected 11 Conservatives (3 of them didn’t live in the Parish) and 1 UKIP representative to fill the 12 seats on the council.  Sadly one of them passed away but the other eleven all resigned.

In all there were 16 resignations between May 2015 and the 3rd May 2018.

September 2020 – THE COST OF DEMOCRACY

In future local people will have to pay towards the costs of elections and by elections through the Parish Precept. This was decided at a meeting of the North Northamptonshire Shadow Executive Committee on Thursday 24th September 2020 where it was resolved that –

‘The Shadow Executive Committee advises the town and parish councils in Kettering Borough that they should precept for the possibility of election costs arising in May 2021, and that future by-election costs will also be borne by them where these are triggered after 1st April 2021.’

The full report can be found at – Document.ashx (northamptonshire.gov.uk)

Just an early example of levelling up (or levelling down) whereby costs will be passed on to Parish and Town Councils when the new North Northants Unitary Council kicks in.

May 2021

In May 2021 only 2 people put their name forward in the Loatland Ward and 8 in the St Giles Ward. In the circumstances the two candidates in Loatland were ‘elected unopposed and 6 were elected in the St Giles Ward and these eight duly elected Councillors were then able to ‘co-opt’ to fill the four vacancies. The Labour group, with 5 of the eight seats, took the view that the council should co-opt the three people who had offered themselves for election (two for the Town Council and one for the North Northants Unitary Council) plus one other. So the four co-options were 2 Labour and 2 Independent (yes, Labour councillors could have co-opted four Labour supporters but chose not to).

August 2022 – PAY AS YOU VOTE

How much will a by election in Desborough cost in the future? The cost to local taxpayers is expected to be around £8,000 for Loatland and £7,500 for St Giles.

Since May 2021 there has only been one by-election in Desborough (August 2022) when an Independent resigned due to ill health and it cost local tax payers around £8000.00.

April 2024

There is currently a vacancy on the Town Council, following the resignation of an ‘Independent’ Councillor.