Resignations arrive by email, usually on a Sunday night, and the first question is always “what do we do now?” The answer has a fixed sequence, set out in the Local Government Act 1972 and the parish election rules, and the clerk runs it. Here it is, in order.
How a vacancy arises
A councillor resigns by writing to the chair (or to the council if the chair is resigning). The resignation takes effect when it’s received, and it can’t be withdrawn afterwards, so a councillor who is wavering should be told that before they send the email. Other causes: death, disqualification (bankruptcy, certain convictions), failing to sign the declaration of acceptance of office, or missing every council meeting for six consecutive months without the council having approved the absence. That last one is the one clerks forget to watch.
Step one: declare it and give notice
The council (in practice the clerk, under standing orders) declares the casual vacancy and tells the district or borough council’s elections office straight away. Then a notice of vacancy goes up on the noticeboard and the website. The elections office will usually send you the notice to use; it says that a vacancy exists, that an election will be held if ten electors of the parish write to the returning officer asking for one within 14 days, and otherwise the council will fill it by co-option.
The 14 days run from the date the notice is displayed and don’t include Saturdays, Sundays, Christmas Day, Good Friday or bank holidays. The elections office will confirm the closing date; put it in the notice.
Step two: wait
Nothing else happens during the 14 days. If ten electors (not councillors, not residents who aren’t on the register) write in, the returning officer calls an election. The returning officer fixes the date; the rules and the standard notice put it within 60 days of the vacancy notice, not counting weekends and bank holidays, and the parish council pays for it, which is why every budget should carry an election reserve. A contested election costs a small parish a few thousand pounds; an uncontested one, where only one candidate stands, costs very little.
Step three: co-opt
If no election is called, the council co-opts. The vacancy goes on the next agenda, the council decides how to find candidates (a notice inviting applications, a short written statement, a few minutes at the meeting to speak), and then votes. Co-option is a decision of the council: the candidate with an absolute majority of the votes cast is co-opted, and if nobody has one on the first round, the lowest drops out and you vote again. The new councillor signs the declaration of acceptance of office before they take part in anything.
Do it in public. Co-option is sometimes done quietly with a friend of the chair, and nothing undermines a council’s standing in the village faster. A notice, a closing date, applications in writing, a vote in open session: it takes one meeting cycle and it protects everyone.
The six-month rule
If the vacancy arises within six months of the date the councillor’s term would have ended at the next ordinary election, no by-election is held even if electors ask for one. The council may co-opt if it wants to, or leave the seat empty until the election. Most councils leave it, unless the vacancy takes them below the quorum.
Quorum
The council can’t act with fewer than one third of its total membership present, and never fewer than three. A council of seven that loses two councillors still has a quorum of three, so it can carry on and co-opt. If vacancies take the council below quorum, the district council can appoint members or order an election, and the clerk should ring them the same day.
After the co-option
- The new councillor completes a register of interests form within 28 days; it goes to the monitoring officer and is published.
- They need a council email address, access to the papers, and the code of conduct, standing orders and financial regulations in their hand.
- The councillor list on the website changes the same week. The Transparency Code asks for it to be kept current, and residents notice when it isn’t.
- Your county association runs induction training for new councillors, and most councils pay for it.