Donna Hall to go early....here's why....

Many will know I have said that when it was announced that Donna Hall would be retiring next summer I said that she probably wouldn't make it that far. I had a number of reasons why I said that.

One thing that some, not many knew, was if Donna Hall had stayed on till Summer she would have been the returning officer for the Local elections next year.  But there was no way I was going to let that happen. Paul Maiden, the successful candidate for Hindley Green, said there was discrepancies in his election - which he has evidence off, but given he won why chase it? Also with the mess of the illegal action earlier in the year against Cllr Steve Jones I have been working on whether, and Labour and the Council were aware of this, we could challenge her position as returning officer?

There is a also a number of legislation to cover what they call, "fit and proper" person test. The case where Cllr Steve Jones took the Council and Donna Hall to the High Court, the judge ordered the costs against the Returning Officer. Wigan Council paid the cost, meaning the taxpayers did, which is wrong! They are also meant to have insurance. Therefore, for instances like this case the insurance company would pay the liability and not the taxpayers.

Statue law says," As RO you are subject to breach of official duty provisions. This means that if you or your appointed deputies are, without reasonable cause, guilty of any act or omission in breach of official duty you (and/or your deputies) are liable on summary conviction to an unlimited fine (Section 63 (1) and (3)(b) Representation of the People Act 1983."

Therefore I have said to Wigan Council she has broken the criminal law.

Also the law says, "Your duties as Returning Officer are separate from your duties as a local government officer. As Returning officer you are not responsible to the council but are directly accountable to the courts as an independent statutory office holder. While you can appoint one or more persons to discharge any or all of your functions, you cannot delegate your personal responsibility for delivering the election (Section 35(4), 63(1) and (3) (b) Representation of the People Act 1983 refers)."

So with all this mounting up Wigan Council decided that enough is enough and to dump her quick because if they allowed her to be the returning officer next March when the Local  elections are called and then I took her to court as not as a fit and proper person under legislation mentioned above then that would put a question mark over all the local elections in Wigan. So Labour have decided to get rid of her now, well February next year, just before the local elections are called and have a new returning officer.      

Even though she is going sooner I am still pushing the fact that taxpayers in Wigan do not pay the bill for her illegal actions as the law states - we shouldn't - the returning officer should!