Parish Council Co-option: The Process, Notice Periods, and How to Avoid a Challenge

When a councillor resigns, dies, or is disqualified mid-term, the council has a vacancy to fill. The route is usually co-option — the council appoints a new member rather than holding an election. But co-option cannot begin until a strict statutory notice period has run, and getting the sequence wrong is one of the easiest ways for a parish council to land a procedural challenge. This guide walks through the legal sequence, the eligibility rules, and the steps that protect the council from a complaint.

First, distinguish the two types of vacancy

The process depends on why the seat is empty:

• A casual vacancy arises when a sitting councillor leaves mid-term — resignation, death, disqualification, or failure to attend meetings for six months. This is the situation this guide covers.
• An unfilled seat after an election arises when not enough candidates stood. This follows a slightly different route and can usually be co-opted straight away without the notice period below.

For a casual vacancy, the council must follow the statutory notice sequence before it can co-opt.

The statutory sequence: public notice, then 14 days

The moment a casual vacancy occurs, the clock starts. The council must give public notice of the vacancy. This duty comes from section 87(2) of the Local Government Act 1972, with the notice given in the manner set out in section 232 — displayed in a conspicuous place in the parish (the noticeboard) and, in practice, on the council website.

Once public notice is given, a window opens. Under rule 5 of the Local Elections (Parishes and Communities) (England and Wales) Rules 2006, an election to fill the vacancy can be requested within 14 days (not counting certain non-working days) of the public notice, by 10 local government electors for the area in which the vacancy occurred. If 10 electors make that request, the council does not co-opt — a by-election is held instead.

If no valid request for an election is made within the 14-day window, rule 5 requires the council to co-opt a person to fill the vacancy "as soon as practicable" after the 14 days expire. Only at that point may co-option begin.

The sequence is therefore fixed:

1. Vacancy occurs
2. Council gives public notice (s.87(2) / s.232)
3. 14-day window for 10 electors to demand a by-election (SI 2006/3305 r.5)
4. If a by-election is demanded → election is held; co-option does not apply
5. If no by-election is demanded → council co-opts as soon as practicable

The single most common error is co-opting before the 14 days are up. A council that appoints a new member during the notice period has acted unlawfully, and the appointment can be challenged. Get the public-notice date in writing, count the 14 days, and only then agenda the co-option.

Who can be co-opted

A co-opted member must meet the same qualifications as an elected councillor and must not be disqualified. To stand, a person must be at least 18 and a qualifying citizen, and must meet at least one of the local connection criteria — being a registered local government elector for the parish, or — for the preceding 12 months — having occupied land or premises in the parish, having their principal place of work in the parish, or having resided in the parish or within three miles of it. (Only the residence limb extends to three miles; the occupation and place-of-work limbs require a connection in the parish itself — LGA 1972 s.79(1).)

A person is disqualified if they are, among other things, an employee of the council, an undischarged bankrupt, or subject to certain criminal sentences. The clerk should ask each candidate to confirm eligibility in writing before the co-option meeting. The full qualification and disqualification rules sit in the Local Government Act 1972 and the Localism Act 2011.

Running the co-option meeting

Co-option is a decision of the full council, taken at a properly convened meeting. There is no single prescribed procedure, but a defensible process looks like this:

• Advertise the co-option alongside the vacancy notice — say how to apply, the deadline, and what candidates should submit.
• Circulate applications to all councillors in advance. Many councils circulate at least three clear days before the meeting, mirroring the agenda-notice rule.
• Invite candidates to the meeting to speak briefly and answer questions. Treat every candidate the same — equal time, the same questions.
• Vote. Where more than one candidate stands, the successful candidate must secure an absolute majority of those present and voting — more than half. If no candidate achieves it on the first vote, the lowest-polling candidate drops out and the council votes again.
• Record the decision in the minutes, including the vote and the name of the person co-opted.

Conduct the vote openly. A secret ballot for co-option sits uneasily with the openness requirements for council decisions and can itself become a ground for complaint.

After co-option: the steps that make it valid

Co-option is not complete when the vote is taken. Two further steps are legally significant:

• Declaration of acceptance of office. A co-opted member cannot act as a councillor until they have made a declaration of acceptance of office, under section 83 of the Local Government Act 1972. This must be made at, or before, the first meeting the new member attends after co-option, in the presence of the clerk (the proper officer) or another councillor. If the new member votes before signing, those votes can be challenged.
• Register of interests. Within 28 days of becoming a member, the co-opted councillor must complete a register of interests and submit it to the council's monitoring officer for publication. This is a code of conduct obligation, and failure to register is a criminal offence.

How challenges arise — and how to avoid them

Co-options are challenged more often than clerks expect, almost always on process grounds rather than on the merits of the candidate. The recurring triggers:

• Co-opting before the 14-day window closes. The appointment is premature and unlawful.
• Defective public notice. Notice not displayed, or displayed only online and not on the noticeboard, or the dates not recorded.
• An unequal or opaque selection process. Candidates given different amounts of time, or a vote taken in secret without explanation.
• The new member acting before the declaration of acceptance. Voting or signing documents before s.83 is satisfied.
• A disqualified person co-opted. Eligibility not checked, and a council employee or disqualified individual appointed.

The defence against all of these is documentation. Record the date of the vacancy, the date and method of public notice, the 14-day expiry, the applications received, the meeting at which co-option was decided, the vote, the declaration of acceptance, and the register of interests. A council that can produce that paper trail is very difficult to challenge.

Where co-option fits the governance picture

A casual vacancy is also a moment for the council to check its wider governance. The new member should be inducted: given the standing orders, financial regulations, and code of conduct, and pointed to training through the county association of local councils. The internal auditor will, at year-end, check that the minutes record the co-option properly — use the compliance checklist tool to confirm the co-option steps and the new member's register of interests are all in place.

Sources

• Local Government Act 1972, Section 87 — casual vacancies and public notice
• Local Government Act 1972, Section 232 — public notices
• Local Elections (Parishes and Communities) (England and Wales) Rules 2006, Rule 5 — filling of casual vacancies
• Local Government Act 1972, Section 83 — declaration of acceptance of office

This article is for general guidance only and does not constitute legal advice. Casual-vacancy procedure can be affected by local circumstances; check with your county association of local councils or monitoring officer where the position is unclear.