By Carmelo Garcia – Local Democracy Reporter
Forest of Dean villagers will be voting next month on whether to remove the remaining councillors from a turmoil-stricken parish council.
The move, which affects Longhope Parish Council, comes after 11 out 40 people at a recent public meeting voted to start a formal procedure to remove the council’s three remaining members.
The Forest of Dean District Council will organise a parish poll on the matter and it will be held on May 11, according to a letter posted on the village notice board.
There have been numerous code of conduct complaints lodged against parish councillors over the last year.
And the Longhope Parish Council letter says “alleged financial irregularities” have recently been noted in the council’s finances which they intend to report to the police.
“It should be noted, that should the result support the original poll, it may not immediately lead to the remaining councillors giving up their seats,” the letter signed by Cllrs Jacqueline Barker, Clive Williams and Peter McCoy reads.
“This would be irresponsible as there will still be the work of the Parish Council to be done, and disruption needs to be avoided.”
“Alleged financial irregularities have recently been noted in the council’s finances and it will be reported to the police once approval is secured at the next Parish Council meeting,” the letter continues.
“In addition, the council intends to approve another approach to the police to investigate other unrelated matters.
“The remaining councillors have agreed to remain in post to assist the police and when the investigation concludes, they will decide whether or not they with to continue to serve.”
The letter also says the Parish Council had yet to regain possession of their laptop, records or other equipment and their activities would be severely restricted until this is rectified.
However, it is understood that the council’s equipment has since been retrieved.
The council has suffered from several vacancies in recent months and there were four at the time the letter was published.
There have also been numerous conduct complaints lodged regarding Longhope Parish Council over the last year, according to a District Council letter from January which is also published on the council’s website.
The letter signed by the council’s monitoring officer says “in two cases, I have concluded that the behaviour would have been serious enough to merit further action, had that been in the public interest”.
However, she did not deem it to be in the public interest to take the matter further amid a “real possibility that the outcome of an investigation would stoke further and deeper division, when what the people of Longhope really need is stability in the Parish Council”.
The Parish Council has been approached for comment.
District Councillors representing the area have declined to comment.