Parish council ballot on the footlights in Winchelsea on 30 August 2012

First, let's make it clear that the blogs on this blog site are "definitely not the views of other councillors or the official view of the council". It actually says this at the top of the blog site. However, one councillor thinks the blog site is misleading as to its authors.
The tagline at the top of the site also says that the blogs underneath represent the views of Cllr Chishick and Comotto, but this particular blog represents the views of Cllr Comotto only, although Cllr Chishick has made many of the following points independently.

The ballot

Tomorrow --- Thursday, 30 August 2012 --- Icklesham Parish Council will hold a ballot on whether the footlights in Winchelsea should be turned off at midnight until 5:30am. This will be the third vote that the council has taken on this question. They have ignored the previous two results for various (not good) reasons which have been examined in previous blogs. This blog is only about the conduct of the latest ballot.

The problem

Tomorrow's ballot will take place between 4:00pm and 9:00pm. There will be no postal votes. Only residents registered to vote in elections in the ward of Winchelsea will be eligible to vote in the ballot. The ballot was announced on 14-15 August, when leaflets were delivered to houses in Winchelsea.
Considerable disquiet has been voiced about the ballot, particularly its timing, by Cllr Chishick and other Winchelsea residents. To summarise the criticisms:

1. The notice period of two weeks and one day was very short and insufficient to allow every resident to make arrangements to ensure they are present in Winchelsea tomorrow. Moreover, limiting the vote to registered voters makes it incumbent upon the council to give residents sufficient time to register as an elector.
2. The ballot is being held on a weekday. This means that those owning weekend homes (almost one quarter of the households of Winchelsea) and those not returning from work until late will not be able to vote, even though they pay the taxes that fund the footlighting or may feel they will be affected by its suspension after midnight.
3. The ballot is being held in August, during the summer vacation period. Many residents are likely to be on holiday and would not have been able to change their holiday arrangements.
4. It is not possible to vote by post. This also disenfranchises those owning weekend homes and those not returning from work until late will not be able to vote, as well as the house-bound.
5. The parish council does not have access to the Electoral Register, so is not in a position to verify that those persons turning up to vote are registered.They cannot exclude under-age residents and may be unable to distinguish residents of neighbouring wards.

It would not have taken much to defer the ballot until September in order to extend the notice period and avoid the holidays. However, the council's instructions to the parish clerk did not allow this. The council's instructions also precluded the clerk from holding the ballot on a weekend and/or extend voting hours, and allowing all residents to vote, rather than just registered voters. This is not an election. It is supposed to be an attempt to measure the opinion of tax-payers. 

The result

The end result of all this is that whoever loses the ballot will have grounds for complaint. Another sorry day for democracy in Icklesham Parish.