The Spring Newsletter of the Rusthall Village Association informs its readers that nominations for parish council elections close at noon on Monday 5th April. Problem is that the 5th of April is a Tuesday. So when is it: Monday the 4th or Tuesday the 5th?
We are informed also that nomination papers can be handed in at the side entrance to the Town Hall. Not advisable. The nomination paper notes state that papers should be handed in personally to the Elections Office and a receipt obtained.
My advice to candidates is that they should ignore the advice of the Association and contact the Town Hall. You will need not only your own electoral number but also those of your proposer and seconder to complete the nomination paper.
So much misinformation makes you wonder if the lot running the Village Association should be let anywhere near public money.
Dear John
ReplyDeleteThanks for pointing out these mistakes! I was one of the two people who put together the newsletter, it is a voluntary set up with a new committee which has seed bedded recent enthusiasm in our community. It had directly led to the interest of over a dozen people stating they will stand for the new parish elections. Our admittedly flawed newsletter led to a meeting of the biggest turnout of the village association to a social club which has also struggled with customers of late. (The side entrance info was from borough information but I take your point about the wrong date digit.)
When we get the parish council we will have a part-time paid clerk who will be better able to spend time putting together information - and getting it checked! We were backing up the election notices that the borough sent out, to all local households in theory, but in delivering the newsletters I found that the borough deliverers had just dumped lots of notices at the bottom of flats stairwells, about which I have informed the council.
Why don't you get in touch with the us through the Chairperson, Jenny Blackburn, 01892 546520 and help put us straight rather than rubbishing and discouraging us on a path which is part of a current blossoming of Rusthall, in the wake of the successful revival of the fete last year?
Don't be cynical - be encouraging my friend. I would do the same for you.
Yours sincerely
Carol Lawrence
25 Common View Rusthall
All I have done is point out the need to ensure that the distinction between the association and the council is maintained and not conflated.
ReplyDeleteSome of us have been around quite a while doing our 'bit'. I have been a governor at both the infant and junior schools, chair of Rusthall Community and Youth Project and a trustee of the almshouses.
Dear John
ReplyDeletePlease come and introduce yourself if you think we might be at any same events. You can get to know the 'village association lot' - we don't wear balaclavas! To be part of the committee is only a question of asking.
Carol Lawrence BSc (Hons) Bristol 1984
ex this and that, St Paul's Schools and Manor Road grant fundraiser
Vice Chair Rusthall Village Association