Resident calls choice (From Warrington Guardian)

Resident calls choice

'disgusting'

A DECISION to co-opt a new member on to Winsford Town Council last week has been met with dismay.

One resident, who wishes to be known as Comrade Joseph Stalin, is 'disgusted' that Stephen Smith was co-opted on to the town council to represent the Swanlow ward without a public election.

He said: "It warmed my heart to see how the Winsford Labour Party solved the problem of the council seat vacated by the Liberal Democrat capitalist lackey in the Swanlowski ward.

"Quite rightly, rather than submitting to the bourgeois evil of an election that would almost certainly have led to another Lib Dem daring to take up office against them, they selflessly decided to follow the strict letter of the law and appointed one of their own to the post."

Liberal Democrat councillors abstained from casting a vote in the co-option last Monday because they felt the process was 'undemocratic' and believed it should have been left up to the people of the Swanlow ward to decide who should represent them.

Comrade Stalin said: "It fills me with nostalgia for my early days in Russia when we too took advantage of the illnesses and decency of our opponents to ruthlessly take power.

"The new councillor, a decent man by all accounts, now owes nothing to the electorate.

"He owes his loyalties only to his fellow Labour councillors. But be careful comrades - the people of Swanlowski and of Winsford still suffer under a free press and the evils of democracy - they may notice your complete disregard for them and of so-called decency."

A spokesperson for Winsford Town Council said: "The vacancy must be filled by election only if within a period of 14 days and commencing on the day after public notice has been given, a notice in writing of a request for an election by 10 electors for the relevant electoral ward is given.

"If no such request is received then the town council must fill the vacancy by co-option."