It beggars belief that a Conservative County Councillor on Suffolk County Council is able to move to the United States and possible retirement, yet is not required to resign his seat! Apparently, all this chap needs to do legally is attend one council meeting every six months!
A similiar situation happened last year in Devon, when another Conservative County Councillor moved across to other side of the English Channel, after her husband started a job in France. This change of circumstances has put this lady in a position in which she has to commute 150 miles by road and ferry, and has since faced calls for her to resign.
When I grew up in the old Merseyside Parliamentary Seat of Crosby, local Tory MP Sir Malcolm Thornton did get the odd criticism for living on the Wirral! It didn't particularly bother me, as the Wirral was still in Merseyside.
Another precedent that would suggest to me that you don't have to have the elected representative living directly in the area they represent is the husband and wife former MPs Nicholas and Ann Winterton. As representatives of neighbouring Cheshire Constituencies, at least one of them was always going to live slightly outside their parliamentary patch.
For me there should always be a common sense rule that an elected representative lives or (in the event of relocating) pledges to live within a certain distance of the area they represent. But the two county councillors I have referred to here are a joke. CEASING TO BE A UK RESIDENT SHOULD ALWAYS AUTOMATICALLY COMPEL AN ELECTED REPRESENTATIVE TO GIVE UP THEIR ELECTED OFFICE!
A similiar situation happened last year in Devon, when another Conservative County Councillor moved across to other side of the English Channel, after her husband started a job in France. This change of circumstances has put this lady in a position in which she has to commute 150 miles by road and ferry, and has since faced calls for her to resign.
When I grew up in the old Merseyside Parliamentary Seat of Crosby, local Tory MP Sir Malcolm Thornton did get the odd criticism for living on the Wirral! It didn't particularly bother me, as the Wirral was still in Merseyside.
Another precedent that would suggest to me that you don't have to have the elected representative living directly in the area they represent is the husband and wife former MPs Nicholas and Ann Winterton. As representatives of neighbouring Cheshire Constituencies, at least one of them was always going to live slightly outside their parliamentary patch.
For me there should always be a common sense rule that an elected representative lives or (in the event of relocating) pledges to live within a certain distance of the area they represent. But the two county councillors I have referred to here are a joke. CEASING TO BE A UK RESIDENT SHOULD ALWAYS AUTOMATICALLY COMPEL AN ELECTED REPRESENTATIVE TO GIVE UP THEIR ELECTED OFFICE!
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