Yorkshire villagers lose their 'David v Goliath' battle against council over election error

The foursome from Church Fenton, between Selby and Tadcaster, challenged returning officer Janet Waggott, who is chief executive of the council, over her role in the election for three places on Church Fenton Parish Council last May.

Susan Babington, Martin Blakey, Sarah Chester and Lesley Wright took their petition to the High Court, questioning the way the election was run.

According to the High Court judgement, “about 20” people who should have been voting for the Police, Fire and Crime Commissioner were wrongly allowed to vote for candidates in the Church Fenton Parish Council by-election.

But His Honour Judge Saffman, sitting as election commissioner, said that the “highly regrettable” error did not stop those voting who were entitled to vote and had no effect on the outcome.

Judge Saffman, who examined five alleged breaches, dismissed the petition, adding: “I am not satisfied that the ordinary person would consider that the election was a sham or a travesty.”

Ms Waggot, who has a “long and clearly distinguished career in local government”, according to the judgement, argued the election was held in accordance with electoral law, though she conceded the confidence of the electorate was likely to have been affected.

Judge Saffman added: “I recognise that this petition has been brought for good and proper motives and has succeeded in highlighting errors which hopefully will not be allowed to recur.

“I should also add that I too am puzzled that an investigation appears to have been undertaken into what went wrong with this election and what lessons can be learnt but that has not been entirely conclusive and apparently has not been put into the public domain.”

Martin Blakey, a spokesman for the Church Fenton campaigners, said: “We have been infuriated by Janet Waggott’s arrogant refusal to take responsibility for this debacle and were delighted to have had the chance to tackle the returning officer in court.”

Mr Blakey said they knew that a re-run of the election could only be ordered if specific laws had been broken.

He added: “We now know that despite a catalogue of errors, this did not happen. But we brought this petition to restore confidence in the democratic process and in an effort to stand up for democracy.

“Ultimately we have now achieved our objective of highlighting this fiasco in the high profile High Court and this case will ensure that future elections are very closely scrutinised to avoid these errors ever happening again.”

A spokesperson for Selby District Council said: “The petition has been dismissed and the election was conducted in accordance to the standards demanded by Parliament.”

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