2024 Elections, Thursday 2 May 2024

You are urged to pay close attention to the following information concerning the preparation and delivery nomination papers, to help to ensure the process is conducted smoothly.

Delivery:

IMPORTANT NOTE: Please email to electoralservices@wyreforestdc.gov.uk to book your appointment to deliver your nomination paper(s) including for an informal check.

Nomination papers, including the home address and consent to nomination, must be delivered to Reception at Wyre Forest District, Wyre Forest House Finepoint Way Kidderminster DY11 7WF between 12 noon and 4pm on Tuesday 19 March and between the hours of 9.30am and 4pm on any working day from Wednesday 20 March to Friday 5 April 2023.

There is no discretion about the delivery of papers. To be accepted, nominations must be delivered and handed in person to the place fixed for that purpose between the hours of 12 noon - 4pm on Tuesday 19 March and between 9.30am and 4pm from Wednesday 20 March to Friday 5 April to either the Returning Officer or one of the appointed deputies.

Nominations cannot be delivered by post, or in any other way, except by personal delivery. Otherwise, they cannot be accepted. This does not apply to other documents in the nominations pack although normally they are handed in together.  Please do not leave any nomination at the Council’s reception desk/area. The reception staff are instructed to tell anyone delivering nomination papers, that nominations must be given in person to one of the elections team members.

Other papers referred to in this guidance may be delivered by other means, including by post. However, the original documents must be delivered so they cannot be transmitted electronically, and they must be received by the close of the nomination period otherwise the nomination may be invalid.   

Who can deliver nominations

It is suggested candidates should deliver their nomination papers personally. If you cannot do this, you can arrange for a trusted person to deliver it on your behalf.

There is no provision in law for election agents at town elections.    

It is important that you or any trusted third party are clear about what, if any, actions a third party may take on your behalf.  It is sometimes necessary to make alterations to a nomination paper to ensure it is valid. If any third party is unclear about the authority, remember you as the candidate must take full responsibility for any changes made. A nomination cannot be altered once a nomination has been formally submitted.

The Returning Officer is offering informal advance checking of nominations which we strongly recommend you do. Any alteration must be made by the candidate or his or her agent. After alterations have been made, nominations will then need to be re-presented. Alterations cannot be made after the nomination papers have formally been accepted.

A nomination paper that is invalid, will be rejected on formal submission as invalid, if not already corrected.

Checking

The Returning Officer/Deputies will be available between the hours of 9.30am and 4pm throughout the nomination period, to carry out informal checks of nomination papers delivered in person. They will assist candidates wherever possible to ensure that nomination papers are valid and can be accepted.

You are requested to send an email to electoral@wyreforestdc.gov. to make an appointment to bring in any nomination paper or batch of nominations. This is for both informal checking and also for formal submission itself.

During the informal checking period, should it be necessary to make changes to a nomination paper, it may be amended then or taken away to allow these alterations to be made to ensure it is valid, provided the request is made by a candidate or someone authorised to act on their behalf.

Nomination papers delivered by hand without being handed to the Returning Officer or to a Deputy will be deemed to have been delivered, so no alterations can be made after that point.  Similarly, once the informal checking stage is complete and the nomination formally submitted, no further change can made. Therefore, it is important candidates take advantage of having an informal check as soon as possible.

If a candidate wishes to make an alteration once the nomination has been formally submitted, the only option is to formally withdraw their candidature and submit a fresh nomination paper.

Nominations cannot be accepted as valid if they do not comply with the statutory requirements.  In these circumstances it will be necessary to declare the paper invalid and send a notice to that effect to the candidate concerned.  A candidate receiving an invalidity notice must complete a fresh nomination paper and arrange for it to be submitted by the deadline for delivery.

Completing nomination papers

The various elements that make up the nomination paper are as follows:

• Name of Town Council, the name of the ward must always be included in full.
• Candidate’s details – the candidate’s name must be completed in full. Please do not use abbreviations or initials.  The same applies to the candidate’s address.  It is not essential to include the county or postcode, as long as the address given can be identified by any reasonable person.  The minimum requirement is to include the name or number and street or location name of the home address and the name of the relevant village or town.  Remember the address given in the nomination will be used as the address for correspondence purposes. 

Please note any honours, decorations or qualifications are not part of the candidate’s name and should not be included.  Prefixes and suffixes will not be transferred to any notices or to the ballot paper.  However, it is accepted practice for any title as Lords and Ladies and knighthoods/damehoods to be included.

There is provision on the nomination paper for the inclusion of commonly used surnames and forenames.  Where one of these categories is applicable, the candidate may complete the relevant section on the nomination paper. This information will then appear on any notices and on the ballot paper, where applicable, to the exclusion of the candidate’s surname and/or forenames in full.

Please do not complete the commonly used surname or forename fields unless you wish to use a different name other than your surname or forenames in full on the ballot paper and on any notices published at the election.

Descriptions

Candidates have four options as follows:

• leave the description box blank.
• include the single word ‘Independent’.
• include either the name of a registered political party or one of the descriptions the party has registered with the Electoral Commission on its website.
• A description of up to six words. These descriptions must be clear and not misleading or confusing for the electorate nor have any connection with any pollical party

Whichever title you decide to use, if any, you must remember any description used will be recorded, exactly as on the nomination paper, on the ballot paper and on any election notices produced during the election.

Any candidates standing under a party banner must produce the necessary document of authorisation from their party or their nomination will be declared invalid

Subscripting to a nomination paper

The nomination paper must be subscribed

• by two electors as proposer and seconder
• These people must be local government electors in the town ward where the candidate is standing for election.

To subscribe a nomination paper, an elector must be registered on 1 March 2024, be eligible to vote at local government elections and must be 18 years of age on polling day.  A person registered under an anonymous entry in the register is not entitled to subscribe a nomination.

Signatures

Signature must be the normal signature of the elector concerned even if this is illegible. These are accepted on face value even if it appears not to be the name represented. The nomination paper includes a further column where the name of any person must be written in block letters. 

Except for the subscribers’ signatures, all parts of the nomination paper should be completed in block letters.

The paper must include the electoral numbers of the persons subscribing it.  The electoral number must include the distinctive letters of the polling district concerned and the number will be incomplete and the nomination therefore invalid without it.

The supply of any register to a candidate can only be made after they have legally become candidates. General this will be on the day of their nomination.  Because of this some candidates may struggle to find access to a reliable source of information about electors’ numbers.  We will do our best to assist candidates in this process.  If the relevant numbers are not known when the nomination paper is completed, this should be left blank for completion at the delivery and checking stage. 

Candidates should be aware that they will have to fill in the missing numbers.  The Returning Officer or Deputies can make minor alterations to correct minor errors (see below).  Nomination papers that do not include complete and correct electoral number after the informal checking stage, will be rejected. 

NOTE: The Returning Officer may correct minor errors in a nomination paper regarding a person’s electoral no, or any obvious spelling errors in the candidate’s details.  A nomination will be invalid if the elector’s number is either incomplete or omitted altogether.

You will need to complete a home address form. In part I you will give your name and full address and add your qualifying address, or full qualifying addresses to each of the relevant qualifications as applies namely during the last 12 months:

• Been registered as a local government elector in the Parish area where you are standing,
• own or rent as a tenant, land in the Parish or is your principal or only place of work
• during the whole of the preceding 12 months resided in the Parish
• Part 2 of the form is completed only if you do not wish your home address to be made public.
• For parishes, the qualification requirement is extended to 4.8km from the parish boundary

Candidates are advised to complete as many of the qualifications that apply to them

Certificate of authorisation and request for use of party emblem

A certificate of authorisation must be supplied before the close of nominations by a candidate wishing to use a registered party description.  The candidate must also make a request in writing before this time to enable the party’s registered emblem to be included on the ballot paper. This is NOT necessary if not using a pollical party description

Those candidates who wish to use a registered description and a registered emblem are asked to complete this part of the nomination paper.  However, the certificate of authorisation can be signed only by the party’s registered nominating officer or by a person delegated to act in their place.

A nomination must have a consent form, and this must be received by the deadline for receipt of nominations.  

Consent to nomination form

This contains the candidate’s consent to stand as a candidate and includes the qualifications that apply. These are exactly same as those listed in the home address form. You will need to sign it and give your date of birth and have the signature attested by one witness.

Consent must be given within one calendar month of Friday 5 April (the last day for the delivery of nomination papers. This is effectively Monday 4 March 2024.

Disqualifications for election and holding office

These are set out on separate pages accompanying the nomination form as contained in the relevant legislation.

Ian Miller
Returning Officer
Wyre Forest District Council

February 2023