THE thorny issue of election charges reared its head at a town council meeting on Monday night.

The charges the council will now have to pay for elections were finally revealed in a letter from Stratford District Council this week.

Clerk Derrick Ward told the meeting the parish would be expected to fork out £1,809 for an ordinary election, and £2,671 in the event of a by-election - if a councillor dies or resigns.

"The problem is we do not know how to budget, we know we will have a full election every four years but it's difficult with a by-election," he said.

He added the cost would be added to the precept and would affect residents.

"It's another five per cent roughly on top of the precept - this is simply a switch of district council policy to make the parishes pay instead of the district," he added.

But Stratford District Council leader Les Topham said he thought spreading the cost of elections was a fairer way of dealing with the expense.

"It's irrelevant who has to pay because it comes from the same source, you and I - no matter who charges it," he added.