LOCAL GOVERNMENT ACT 2000

The Local Authorities (Referendums) (Petitions and Directions) (Wales) Regulations 2001 (as amended)

Publication of Verification Number

Under the Local Government Act 2000, county and county borough councils are required to arrange for the discharge of their functions by executives, which must take one of the forms specified in the Act. Carmarthenshire County Council operates through a leader and cabinet executive.

These Regulations allow for the possibility of the Council holding a referendum on whether it should operate different executive arrangements, following the receipt of a valid petition from local government electors. A Council may not hold more than one referendum in any five year period.

The Regulations limit the period of time in which a petition may be presented to the Council. The duration of the petition period is six months, the period commencing twelve months before the date on which ordinary local government elections are to be held. As the next elections are due to take place in May 2012, any such petition would have to be presented to the Council between 1st May 2011 and 1st November 2011 (the petition period).

The Council’s Proper Officer is required to publish, in advance of the petition period, a number (known as the verification number) that is equal to 10% of the number of local government electors shown in the electoral register at a certain date. This number will have effect for the purposes of determining the validity of a petition presented to the Council during the petition period. The relevant number is 13,269.

Lyn Thomas
Monitoring |Officer
1st October 2010