Elections will take place for Mole Valley District Councillors and Parish Councils on Thursday 4 May 2023 and the pre-election period has started today (22 March).
In practice, it means that we need to start thinking carefully about what we put out into the public domain during this period.
The first question to ask is ‘could a reasonable person conclude that we are spending public money to influence the outcome of the election?’ If the answer is ‘yes’ this communication cannot go out.
So, we cannot:
- produce publicity on matters which are politically controversial
- make references to individual candidates or parties in press releases
- arrange proactive media or events involving candidates
- issue photographs which include candidates
- supply council photographs or other materials to political group unless we have verified that they will not be used for campaigning purposes
- continue hosting third party blogs or e-communications
We need to think carefully before we:
- Continue to run campaign material to support our own local campaigns. If the campaign is already running and is non-controversial (for example, on matters like recruitment, recycling or leisure) and would be a waste of public money to cancel or postpone them, then we’ll continue. However, we need to think carefully if a campaign could be deemed likely to influence the outcome of the election. In such cases we need to stop or defer them. An example might be a campaign on an issue which has been subject of local political debate and/or disagreement.
- Launch any new consultations. Unless it is a statutory duty or considered normal council business, such as budget consultations. We should consider carefully before starting any new consultations or publish report findings from consultation exercises, which could be politically sensitive.
We are allowed to:
- continue to discharge normal council business (for example determining planning applications, even if they are controversial)
- publish factual information to counteract misleading, controversial or extreme (for example, racist/sexist) information
- share information of community value on upcoming local events as long as they are not related to any political party
If you have anything that you are due to do during this time that you are in any way unsure about, please can you check in with Magdalena, Bella or Dia before you go ahead.