WHITEHILL Town Council voted against co-opting a new councillor this week, despite pressure to fill an empty seat.

The vote was called following the resignation of Alan Waterhouse, who stood down for personal reasons on October 1.

Members agreed it would not make sense to spend thousands of pounds on a by-election when May’s full election is just around the corner.

However, despite both of the council’s political parties appearing to prefer an empty seat, town clerk Andrea Mann said that, because the period of the vacancy was outside the six-month-until-election window, the council “must co-opt” a new councillor.

“It’s not a choice,” she said. “You do have to co-opt.”

But with just a single candidate to consider, Owen Needham, members remained defiant.

Councillor Sally Pond said while the council did indeed have to “seek” co-option, it was within its rights to vote against a candidate. In such a case, the casual vacancy would simply stay open.

Ms Mann told councillors she was “shocked” by their resistance and said they “have a candidate” in front of them that they “have to co-opt” unless there was a “legal reason” not to.

However, therein lied a key concern. Mr Needham said in his application that he sees the opportunity to become a councillor as a way to “do something for the community” and “help the town that I was brought up in get where it needs to be”.

While these sentiments ticked some boxes, his absence at Monday’s (November 5) meeting was pivotal for councillors.

“How can the council possibly co-opt someone they haven’t met?” councillor Andy Tree asked.

This, he felt, was “reason enough” not to welcome someone onto the council. When the meeting reached an apparent stalemate, with no one even willing to propose a vote, Mr Tree said he felt “quite strongly” that the council is “never forced to do anything”.

Ms Mann told the chamber that she had never encountered a situation where a council did not want to fill a vacancy, adding that it was “not the council’s prerogative” to “change the number of seats”.

But town council leader Mark Davison said one could not “force someone to propose” something they do not want to.

“That’s crazy,” he added.

Councillor Ian Georgii sung from a similar sheet.

“I’m certainly not going to be bound by a set of rules that are inexplicable,” he said.

In the end, councillors agreed for the sake of “order” that the chair and vice chair would propose and second the motion to co-opt Mr Needham. The vote, however, went six against, with one abstention, meaning the vacancy is still open.

Ms Mann said she “did not understand” members’ behaviour, adding that she is tasked by the Local Government Boundary Commission for England to fill all 15 of the town council’s seats.

She shared the professional advice she had received from The Hampshire Association of Local Councils.

“The town council is not obliged to fill the vacancy, nor is it obliged to select anyone of the candidates that apply,” the association stated. “However, is not desirable to be left under represented for a significant amount of time, nor does it contribute to effective or efficient working of the council if there is insufficient councillors to share the workload.”

Whitehill Town Council has 15 seats, 10 of which are held by the Conservatives and four by the Whitehill and Bordon Community Party.