Colyton Parish and East Devon District Councils have both refuted claims that they breached privacy laws, after the names of those who had requested a by-election were distributed.

The parish council currently has three vacancies, with Ray Watts having recently tendered his immediate resignation.

In his resignation letter, Mr Watts said: "It has been an immense honour and privilege to serve the communities of Colyton and Colyford as parish councillor for the past three years.

"However I now need to act decisively to clear the way for another candidate to come forward for election in May, and for me to pursue a different path."

For a by-election to be held in May, at least 10 electors must request one, otherwise the vacancies can be filled by co-option - meaning councillors choose the preferred candidates themselves.

More than the required 10 electors have written to East Devon District Council (EDDC) - the authority responsible for elections - meaning a by-election will now be called.

But concerns have been raised that Colyton Parish Council was given the names of those who made the request, and has been accused of wanting them for "malicious" reasons.

Speaking during the public forum at this month's parish council meeting, Colyford resident Ian Priestly said Cllr Steve Real had asked the parish clerk to obtain the names of those who had requested the by-election from EDDC.

The names had been passed over by EDDC and were then distributed to every member of the parish council.

Mr Priestly said he believed this to be a breach of General Data Protection Regulations (GDPR), which are rules relating to how organisations and businesses collect and process personal data, introduced in the UK in 2018.

He said he had contacted EDDC's lawyer on the matter, and the lawyer had admitted that the district council's privacy rules were "very vague, unclear and needed updating".

Mr Priestly reported that the lawyer had said he would be willing to apologise on behalf of EDDC to all those whose details were released.

However, a statement from East Devon District Council later said that there was no breach of data protection laws.

Mr Priestly asked: "Why did the parish council want the names in the first place? You took advantage of an inexperienced clerk, treating him like your new pet who was anxious to please his owners.

"What will happen to the names now? Do you intend to use them maliciously? What benefit is there to any individual councillor knowing who requested an election?

"Why have you not respected privacy laws and the council's GDPR guidelines, which differ in this case to the EDDC ones? What steps have you now taken to keep the list confidential?"

Parish council chairman Andrew Parr said they had "clearance" to request the names and had always been allowed to view them on past occasions.

Mr Priestly pointed out that the law had changed since previous by-elections, but Cllr Parr replied: "You may say that but without knowing the names, you could have 10 people come forward and some of them may not be residents of the parish. We are allowed to ask for those names and it would be senseless not to."

Mr Priestly argued that the names should not have then been distributed to all councillors.

Cllr Parr replied: "It's only been distributed to councillors and not any wider than that so I don't really see that it's a problem."

Mr Priestly then asked what had been done with the names, and Cllr Parr said he assumed councillors had "kept them to themselves".

Cllr Howard West said it was EDDC's responsibility to ensure those requesting a by-election lived locally, and not the responsibility of the parish council.

He was backed by Cllr Paul Arnott, who is both a parish councillor and leader of EDDC. He said the names would have been checked by EDDC's Electoral Services, which is responsible for creating the Electoral Roll, so "there was no value" in the parish council offering to check the names itself.

Asked again why he had initially requested the names, Cllr Steve Real said: "I was asked by several people in the community why are we having an election costing £2,000 to £2,500 for a 12-month period and I told them we could have co-opted but, because 10 or more wrote to EDDC requesting an election, we have to have an election.

"What a waste of money, I was told. They can't blame Colyton Parish Council; this is down to more than 10 members of the public who have requested it."

Mr Priestly asked Cllr Real if he had now passed the names on to "his friends", to which Cllr Real replied: "Absolutely not."

Mr Priestly continued: "You knew there were 10 names, you didn't need to know who the names were."

Cllr Real: "I wanted to personally know."

Mr Priestly: "Is that for malicious reasons?"

Cllr Real: "No, nothing malicious. If these people are big enough and man enough to ask for an election and spend £2,500 for a year, when we've managed for seven months now with a vacancy, they ought to stand up and be counted for spending our parishioners' money.

"We [councillors] have to stand up and be counted when we spend a single penny."

Mr Priestly: "The people wanted a clear and transparent election, that's what it's about, not you co-opting your friends on."

Cllr Real: "That is nasty and malicious."

Cllr Arnott clarified that there was two years remaining of the current council term, not 12 months as Cllr Real had said.

The matter was then brought to a close with no further discussion.

In response to the discussion, a statement from East Devon District Council said: "It is not for EDDC to comment on the reasons why the parish council or its members wanted sight of the list of electors.

"This was not a breach of data protection rules because any written notice of a request for an election is a document falling within Section 225(1) of the Local Government Act 1972 and therefore should be made available for inspection and/or copying under Section 228(5) of that Act.

"East Devon received a request for the document and provided it in accordance with legal requirements. Any member of the public is entitled to have access to such documents."

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