Casual vacancy at Ruyton XI Towns Parish Council

Resignation of Councillor Jones and notice of casual vacancy

Some of you may have heard that Councillor Christine Jones has sadly decided to step down from the Parish Council. This means there is now a ‘casual vacancy’ in the Parish Council. We have notified Shropshire Council and you can view or download the Notice of casual vacancy here.

Thank you to Cllr Christine Jones

Christine Jones has been an active member of the council since joining during lockdown in 2020. She has been particularly active in the PC’s Planning Working Group, and her experience in local council planning matters have been valuable for the PC. She was also the PC’s representative for the North Shropshire Area Committee for SALC (Shropshire Association of Local Council) and we are very grateful for the extra time dedicated to attending these meetings, sharing the PC’s view and preparing reports for PC meetings. As someone who lives and works outside the main village of Ruyton, Christine’s input and perspective on issues affecting the wider parish area, including highways matters, and rights of way maintenance were also extremely valuable. The Parish Council is of course sad to say goodbye to Christine, and would like to thank her for all her hard work and contributions to the community, and we wish her all the very best for the future.

Local electors have 14 working days to request a by-election

As per legislation, local electors now have the opportunity to request a by-election to fill the vacant seat on the Council (see Notice of vacancy above for more detail). Due to Christmas bank holidays, this 14-day period will end on 30th Dec 2021. If during that time 10 electors have submitted a request to Shropshire Council for an election, then an election will be called. If during that period no election is requested, then the PC has the right to co-opt someone to fill the vacancy. Because of holiday closures in Shropshire Council, we won’t hear from them until at least 4th Jan 2022. We will update the PC website and notice boards with further info once we know what the next steps are.