Issue - meetings

Whole Council Elections - Decision Stage

Meeting: 08/09/2021 - Democracy and General Purposes Committee (Item 55)

55 Whole Council Elections - Decision Stage pdf icon PDF 143 KB

Minutes:

The Democratic and Electoral Services Manager introduced the report which outlined the outcomes of the public consultation on whole council elections. 3,130 responses were received and of the respondents who expressed a preference, 71.6% were in favour of whole council elections, and the result was within the margin of error that would be expected for a survey of that scale.

 

In response to questions, the Democratic and Electoral Manager explained that the questionnaires were sent to 15,000 households chosen at random following sampling methodology as previously used by the Council, and analysis had shown the result to be statistically significant.

 

Concerns were expressed that whole council elections risked a large turnover of Councillors, which could lead to poor decision-making, with financial implications for the council. Additionally, groups had historically been unable to put forward enough candidates when whole council elections had occurred, which led to seats not being contested in some wards. 

 

It was also expressed that a similar survey undertaken previously had yielded similar results, with a majority of respondents in favour of whole council elections. The financial saving that would be made was highlighted, and also the pre-election period would be reduced to once every four years. Continuing with elections by thirds would lead to the loss of single- and two-Member wards as the Local Government Boundary Review would be affected by the election cycle.

 

RESOLVED: That

 

1.  Council be recommended to pass the following resolution at an Extraordinary meeting:

 

“That the Maidstone Borough Council hereby adopts a scheme of whole council elections, meaning an electoral cycle of one election every four years with all councillors being elected, with the first such election being 2024”

 

2.  In the event that Council does not accept the recommendation, a report be brought back to the Committee on further options such as a referendum.

 

Councillors English, Hastie, McKay and R Webb requested that their dissent be noted.