The Town Council result!

Judy,

I feel a bit more coherent today, I'm glad to say.

I told you about how our system of collecting votes works. Let me tell you now about the farcical thing which occurred during the count for the town council.

The town council has been Labour for a long time. However with all the seats we lost, it was debatable whether we would retain control. We needed thirteen seats to gain a majority.

In true nail-biting style it all depended on the last result. We had eleven seats, and could gain two more in this particular ward. When the results were announced by the deputy returning officer, there was only one Labour councillor elected with one Conservative. So we lost control of the council. But then people suddenly noticed that there seemed to be an anomaly in the number of votes cast. It turned out that a ballot box had somehow got lost! So the box was found, and the votes it contained were counted. This meant that the previous result had been wrong, and that two Labour councillors should have been elected, and Labour should have had control of the town council.
However, because the previous result had been announced, then it had to stand!

We objected, and the matter is now with the borough legal department. If they do not find that the result can be changed, then the only further thing that can be done is a high court action, which would be very expensive!

I spoke about Gilbert and Sullivan - when things go wrong they do so in the same style!

Lang