The Democracy Commission Report is significant and its recommendations
can take this council further forward with our engagements with local citizens.
There are however some real missed opportunities that could have made this
report even more far reaching than it is.
There are 4 areas I’d like to
highlight which I guess form my minority report.
Proportional
Representation for Local Elections
In Scotland they have just had their local elections using
the tried and tested Single Transferable vote method where the percentage of
votes more closely align with the number of elected Councillors. Proportional Representation. This fairer
system doesn’t favour particular parties it favours the electorate and their
wishes. So under a First Past the Post System in Scotland at the last elections
all but 3 MPs came from the Scottish National Party whereas in the local
elections that they have just had the number of Cllrs elected reflects the vote and
bizarrely one of the beneficiaries of this system was the Conservative Party
who would have had far less representation in the traditional archaic electoral
system we have for local elections in England. I’ll leave that there and to be
fair it was always a non starter as a recommendation sensible though it would
be.
Other potential recommendations should have been less
controversial.
Local Elections every
4 years
As Commissioners it was our role to go where the evidence
took us and the vast majority of it said that all out elections every 4 years
were good for the governance of public bodies like the Council. Of course there
is concern about how accountable this makes us politicians but there lots of
precedents for elections every 4 years e.g. County Councils, the Greater London
Assembly, Scottish Local Authorities, Doncaster Council, Rotherham Council and
our own Government. This Council can be in a state of almost constant electoral
warfare. No sooner have we finished one election than we start another.
Difficult decisions that need to be made due to financial pressures get fudged.
We need to be able to present a programme to citizens for a four year term so
people can really judge how well their council is over a reasonable amount of
time. Local elections every four years could become event not the usual trek
for the faithful few to the polling station. This is not one of the recommendations
before you and in my view it is a shame.
Reducing the number
of Cllrs
Another recommendation that is not here is to reduce the
number of Councillors. Some good arguments have been put as to why we need to
maintain the number of Councillors we have and to be fair I agree with those arguments.
So what is the proble?m. Well I also agree that we should not be cutting funding
for roads. I also believe that we shouldn’t be shutting Libraries. I firmly
believe that many of the 1000s of people that have left the Council’s
employment were doing a good job and I think perfectly good arguments could
have been made to keep many of them. The problem is that our budgets have been
slashed hugely by the Government. We need to demonstrate to show the public
that elected representatives share the organisations pain. It is about giving
people confidence that we as Councillors don’t regard ourselves as untouchable
or insulated from harsh realities
Huddersfield Town
Council
The last thing I’ll mention is not specifically excluded
from the report and that gives me hope and that is establishing a Huddersfield
Town Council. Next year will be the 150th Anniversary of the founding
of the County Borough of Huddersfield and it would be marvellous if we could
make some real progress to establishing a new council for the area. Town
Councils have recently been established in other areas. They have access to
funds we don’t. By their nature they are closer to the people and have a
stronger local connection by their very nature. As Kirklees considers the abolition
of district committees, as funding is cut back we need to provide people with hope
and show them that there is a plan to not simply manage decline from Kirklees
Council but find new forms of democracy that they can identify with, be part of
and know is on their side.
Together these 4 proposals would provide a radical and I
believe popular change to Democracy in Kirklees that would capture local
peoples imagination, trust and enthusiasm
