City council set to vote on call to hold local elections every four years

MOTION SEEKS FULL AUTHORITY TO MAKE A DECISION IN JANUARY

PEOPLE in Derby may only be required to vote in city council elections once every four years if councillors back a motion today calling for a vote on the issue in January’s full council meeting.

Currently, there are city council elections – for a third of the 51 councillors each year – for three years in a row and in the fourth year there is no election at all. This is called a thirds system.

People may think they have heard it all before about potentially moving to elections every four years and to a certain extent that is true.

They were consulted on the election cycle in 2016 and wanted the change but the then council leader Ranjit Banwait lost a vote in the council chamber to do that later that year.

And last year, there was a further public consultation, which was overwhelmingly in favour of moving to whole council elections every four years but this again failed to get the necessary two-thirds majority in the council chamber.

But this time it looks as if the change could go ahead. The motion to move to the four-yearly cycle going to full council tonight has been proposed by Labour group leader Councillor Baggy Shanker and seconded by Conservative city council leader Councillor

Chris Poulter.

The motion says that a current local government boundary review, which is taking place in Derby will automatically result in a single whole council election in 2023 because there are likely to be changes to ward boundaries.

It also acknowledges that in the two previous consultations, there was “overwhelming” public support even though councillors did not carry out the public wish. But there is to be no further public consultation.

The motion says: “Council believes that it is appropriate to again consider changing the electoral cycle, to allow the boundary review to be undertaken with certainty of the authority’s future electoral arrangements.

“Given the financial challenges faced by the council and to ensure the appropriate use of public funds, council considers that a third public consultation in five years is unnecessary and believes that the consultation undertaken between January and March 2020 remains representative of the views of people and businesses in Derby.”

It is proposed that an extraordinary meeting of the full council will be called just prior to a planned meeting on January 19, 2022, which will allow a further vote to take place.

Previously it was stated that moving to a four-year cycle would save taxpayers in the region of £387,000, with an estimated cost of staging an election every year for three years coming to £750,000 in total, reduced to £363,000 for an election every four years.

In the current electoral arrangement, the council’s political makeup, and consequently, its policies, can be subject to change on an annual basis.

Businesses claim this is bad for decision making and economic certainty in the city and have called for elections every four years.

Derby is the only local authority in Derbyshire to still have a thirds system operating – in 2019 Amber Valley Borough Council voted to return to elections every four years, citing saving money as a significant factor.

Amber Valley council officers also argued that moving to one election every four years would improve long-term planning and consistency of policy.

Council believes that it is appropriate to again consider changing the electoral cycle.

Council motion