Tim's Council Diary: JTB and F&HD&PCJC. Honestly.

I've already written about the Joint Transportation Board meeting on Monday, and don't really need to revisit that.

However a word about Folkestone & Hythe District and Parish Council's Joint Committee which I attended (also virtually) on Thursday. This is a forum drawn from the District Council and the Town and Parish Councils within the disitrct to discuss matters that, er, matter to both of them.

This time there was a presentation from the excellent Paul Butler about the recent "all out" elections in the Disitrct, and the challenges over the next year or so.

Amongst a range of other discussion and feedback points there was a strong sense the Town and Parishs understood and accepted their role in paying for regular elections every 4 years. You can budget for that. However, there was also a feeling that by-elections are difficult to budget for, and as the costsa can be quite high they are really difficult to fund for many (the bigger Town's have correspondingly higher fees as the costs are at least partly pro-rata per voter).

What's the solution? Don't know. I'd like to consider the District either being able to pick up the tab for by-elections, however, at a time the disitrct is facing big cuts too, its not the time to commit to extra expenditure. Maybe running some sort of "insurance" scheme for Towns and Parishes that would cover the cost of by-elections that came up. Looks like one to come back to, but I hope we can. There is a proce for democracy, but its better if you can budget for that price...