A PARISH council for Mary Tavy has been elected — through a 'bizarre' process of drawing names out of a hat.

The council was left unable to operate last month, after seven members resigned en bloc.

Their resignations followed a decision by West Devon's standards committee to take no action regarding a complaint about one of the council's members.

More than 180 people packed a public meeting in the village at the beginning of the month, as West Devon Borough Council attempted to find a way forward for the village.

Cllr James McInnes, the borough's leader, chaired the meeting. He told his fellow members at last week's full meeting of West Devon Council that there was 'overwhelming' support to randomly pick seven names from the 16 applicants, rather than go through a formal co-option process.

He said the new council would only serve until May, when local elections were due to be held, and he was sure 'a robust' contest for seats would be held at that point.

Cllr Philip Sanders said there was obviously 'disarray' in Mary Tavy's council and it would need 'a considerable degree of support' to help it operate into 2011 and beyond.

Cllr Sanders said: 'To pick people at random to try and complete what has been a very difficult issue strikes me as nothing short of bizarre — frankly, I am not comfortable about doing it this way.'

But Cllr Ted Sherrell said 'in the interests of grass-roots democracy' he supported the unorthodox method.

Cllr Dennis Bater said: 'I think we should listen to the public and draw the names out of a hat.'

The borough's monitoring officer, Delyth Jenkins Evans, who had also attended the public meeting in Mary Tavy, said the overwhelming majority of those attending had expressed a desire to see the parish council up and running as soon as possible.

She said: 'It is rather unusual, but to do what is, in effect, drawing lots is a perfectly proper means of settling an election, although drawing seven lots is clearly very unusual.'

The council agreed the candidates for Mary Tavy Parish Council should be drawn from a hat, and West Devon mayor Cllr John Hockridge did the honours.

The seven new members were confirmed as Michael Cook, Roy Cook, Hugh Cook, Roderick Jones, Michael Smale, Roger Page and Julian Tarrant-Boyce.