It is disappointing that for many years now, there have been no contested elections to Marlborough Town Council.
The last contested election was twelve years ago when Councillor Barret-Morton got voted in at a by-election.
This means that most councillors are only there because they were elected unopposed or were co-opted.
The majority of councillors have never had to campaign and present themselves before the electorate.
This is not their fault of course.
I am always surprised to note that when the Town Council has to fill vacancies after the “election” several candidates put their names forward to be co-opted.
Why did they not stand for the election?
In that case the electorate of Marlborough could have been consulted!
As things stand the Town Council is becoming a self selecting body which is hardly democratic.
I don’t imagine we will ever get back to the days of the Borough (abolished in 1974) when annual elections were always contested and achieved voter turnouts of almost 50% (one of the highest in the country).
However I do hope that contested elections could become the norm rather than “elected unopposed” or “co-opted”.
Yours,
David Chandler
Marlborough
Road closures from Tues Jan 4 -Oare Hill and Savernake Forest
