Election fees updated after being untouched for around 20 years

Charges for parishes to increase

The fees Mid Devon charges parishes to administer local elections are set to rise after being overlooked for about 20 years.

When local elections occur in a district, such as Mid Devon, polling stations are set up across its various parishes.

But because district councils are responsible for overseeing such elections, and not parish council staff, the parishes pay fees to the district to cover such overheads like staff costs.

Five fees are set to rise, including a charge for the first 1,000 electors in a ward, which will jump from £88 to nearly £162. This means that if a ward has 5,000 residents, it would pay an amount equal to five times the charge – £810 in this example.

The cost of up to 100 postal votes will virtually double, from £11.45 to £21.07..

The move is being made because the council has found that costs it does not control – such as the price of hiring polling station venues – have risen markedly in recent years, yet the fees it charges for its own services have remained static.

“The necessary costs of running elections have increased over time, from postage to venue hire, and the returning officer [responsible for overseeing elections] says that casual staff who are hired to help administer elections safely and securely are paid a higher rate than the fees paid to the teams responsible for running election events,” said Councillor Jane Lock (Liberal Democrat, Canonsleigh), the cabinet member for people and development.

Councillor Luke Taylor (Liberal Democrat, Bradninch), the council’s leader welcomed the report on the fee changes even though it had been “20 years in the making”.

The change in fees, which will take effect from the next financial year that begins in April, comes after both Teignbridge District Council and East Devon District council have increased their fees in the past couple of years.