I was first elected to Rye Town Council in May 2008. In my election material, I asserted that I had a strong voice and was prepared to speak out for the community. Over the last seven years, I have been far from silent as a councillor, although many times in a minority of one or two!
In the forthcoming town council election I shall, rightly, be ineligible to stand as a candidate because I don’t live in Rye any more, having moved away to help care for my grandchildren.
But what about you? Are you over 18, are you resident or working in Rye and have you avoided the hospitality of Her Majesty for the greater part of the last five years? Then you are very probably eligible to stand as a town councillor.
From my experience, Rye needs fresh, honest, independent-minded councillors with common sense who care about the town and want to have a say in its future. They don’t need higher education or social status and they are better without friends in high places. In addition, in my election literature in 2008, I said: “Keep party politics out of Rye Town Hall.” Doesn’t Rye have enough problems without politicians as well, whatever their party?
If fewer than 16 people seek election, then there will be no election. But those few, who have filled in their nomination papers, however desirable they might or might not be, will automatically become councillors. They can then co-opt their mates to make up the numbers. And there they stay until 2019. That is a nightmare scenario, it’s not democracy but it is very possible.
Please, independent Ryers, consider standing as councillors in my place. You have only a week, until April 9, to submit nomination papers, readily available from the Town Hall. I became a councillor – so anybody can!