More on KentOnline
More on KentOnline
Everybody was referring to Polling Day, May 6, as Super Thursday, because of the large number of elections being held that day.
Voters in most of Maidstone will be asked to vote for their KCC representative, their borough ward councillor and their police and crime commissioner. One thing they will not be asked to vote for, however, is their parish council.
There were due to be full-council elections in 17 parishes from Barming to West Farleigh, but no polling will take place, because not a single parish has received a surfeit of candidates over seats available.
That means that everyone who put their name forward is automatically declared "elected."
Boughton Malherbe, Bredhurst, Hollingbourne, Teston and Ulcombe all had just the right number of hopefuls for the number of vacancies.
But Barming, Boughton Monchelsea, Boxley, Chart Sutton, Coxheath, East Farleigh, Headcorn, Hunton, Linton, Marden, Stockbury and West Farleigh all fell short of the number of councillors they are supposed to have.
Indeed, West Farleigh now finds itself with only three councillors - it is supposed to have seven. East Farleigh has only four - it is supposed to have nine.
There were also by-elections due in three parishes -Yalding, Detling and for two seats in Tovil.
In Tovil, there was only one candidate - former borough councillor Mike Hogg - so he was automatically elected.
In Detling and Yalding, there will be an election as there are two candidates for each seat.
Mike FitzGerald, a former Mayor of Maidstone, is one of those automatically returned on his parish council at Chart Sutton.
He said: "How sad and disappointing!"
Mr FitzGerald said: "It is strange that just when there has been such a strong response to volunteering during this past year, engaging the community together in a common cause to fight the pandemic, that this hasn’t translated into candidates prepared to commit to becoming a councillor."
He said: "Parish councils are the first tier of government that drive forward and shape the communities we live in.
"They are the lifeblood, the vision and the rock on which our country depends.
"This must act as a lesson to us all. We need to collectively promote and share how a strong parish council delivers for the households it serves.
"We need strong councils to ensure that we recover from the challenges of Covid 19."
