Leader of Warwick District Council faces call to resign due to his home address being outside the district boundary

The leader of Warwick District Council faced a call to resign this week due to his home address being outside the district boundary.

Councillor Ian Davison (Green, Leamington Brunswick) got the top job in May 2023 after his party won the most seats in the district’s elections and created a coalition with Labour.

That result sealed the continuation of Cllr Davison’s service which dates back to 2015 when he was a Leamington resident.

He told the Local Democracy Reporting Service that he had declared to council in 2021 that he had moved to Harbury, less than two miles outside the district’s boundary.

It is part of Stratford District Council’s patch.

Cllr Davison still qualifies to stand in elections on the basis that his main or only place of work, which since his retirement from his day job is as a district councillor, is within the district.

Guidance on the Electoral Commission website states: “Councillors whose main or only job is being a councillor would be able to use this qualification, provided that their place of work is within the local authority.”

But while that box has been ticked, political rival Councillor Jan Matecki (Con, Budbrooke) argued Cllr Davison has a moral obligation to resign through a question at Wednesday's meeting for all councillors.

Referring back to a vote on the failed merger between Warwick and Stratforddistrict councils in December 2021, Cllr Matecki quoted the reasons Councillor Will Roberts (Green, Leamington Willes) – now a member of the Green-Labour cabinet – gave for saying no at that time.

Cllr Matecki said: “He (Cllr Roberts) voted against us joining with Stratford because he found it a ‘hard pill to swallow’ to have a councillor from Stratford district making decisions for this council.

“This council has a lot of difficult decisions to make – the investment zone, possibly 9,000 new jobs, £2 billion worth of investment, we have things like council tax and budgets to work through.

“I have a lot of respect for the leader as a person and as a councillor, but even Councillor Will Roberts does not believe that you should be a Warwick District councillor, let alone leader because, in his own words, it does not benefit the public and he finds it a hard pill to swallow.

“Therefore, will the leader make the moral and honourable decision to resign, like all other councillors who have moved out of the area since I have been a councillor, and let the people of Warwick district make the important decisions for Warwick district residents?”

Cllr Davison replied: “I think what you are saying is essentially what you asked me very early on in the spring or summer last year.

“My response then is the same as the response that I give now, that as all councillors are aware there are four criteria by which you can ask to stand as a councillor. One of these is where you live.

"If you have an issue with those criteria, you should take it up with the Electoral Commission, they are the ones who set the rules.

“I am surprised you feel, because I am following the rules, that there is something immoral about that.”

Cllr Matecki sought to continue the line of questioning but chair Councillor Sidney Syson (Lib Dem, Leamington Milverton) cut in and said: “I am going to draw a line under that.”