Can I become a Parish Councillor and where?

Who can be a candidate?

To be qualified to be elected a member of the Parish Council you must be 18 years of age or over at the date of your nomination, and a British or Commonwealth citizen, a citizen of the Republic of Ireland or a citizen of another Member State of the European Community, and either:

1. Be a registered local government elector for the Parish both on the day you are nominated and election day. You can check this by contacting the Electoral Services Unit;
2. You must have occupied as owner or tenant any land or other premises in the Parish during the whole of the twelve months before the day you are nominated and election day; or
3. Your principal or only place of work in the twelve months before the day you are nominated and election day has been in the Parish; or
4. You must have lived in the Parish or within 4.8 kilometres (3 miles), during the whole of the twelve months before the day you are nominated and election day.

Who cannot be a candidate?

Certain people are disqualified from being elected. You cannot be a candidate if you: hold a paid office under the Parish authority or a politically restricted post (as defined in Part I of the Local Government and Housing Act 1989); or

have been adjudged bankrupt or made a composition or arrangement with creditors; or

have been sentenced to a term of imprisonment of three months or more (including a suspended sentence) without the option of a fine, during the five years before Election Day; or

have been disqualified under part Ill of the Representation of the People Act 1983 or under the Audit Commission Act 1998.

Further information is available from the Parish Clerk or any existing Councillor.

You can become a parish councillor for any parish in which you are in the list of electors or during the whole of the preceding twelve months you

• occupied land as owner or tenant in it, or
• had a principal place of work there, or
• resided in or within three miles of it