Nominations have been announced for parish and district elections and they are rather shocking. I say this as of the 61 parishes in Torridge only 3 are actually being contested which shows an alarming drop in interest/community spirit.
This means that many parishes will now have to co-opt people to make up numbers, thus depriving the electorate of any choice.
With the district seats every one is being contested although there is an oddity in that 24 would-be councillors haven’t given their address – with 7 Conservatives and 5 Independents forming the two largest groups.
There are many reasons why people do not want the electorate to know their address of course but even more surprising is that two Independent candidates actually live in the North Devon council area. I know this is legally possible but one has to wonder why they didn’t stand in North Devon?
From Councillor Peter Christie
