Future election cycle

We are reviewing how often we hold local elections and must either move to an ‘all out’ system, with all councillors elected every four years, or a modified ‘by thirds’ system, with a third of councillors elected each year for three years out of four (with no election on the fourth year).

Currently our 25 wards are represented by one, two or three local councillors. They are elected using the ‘by thirds’ electoral cycle.

The options

1. 'All out' elections 

This would mean all of the council's 54 councillors would be up for election at the same time, every four years. Benefits of this option include:

• Research by the Electoral Commission suggests that ‘all out’ elections are fairer, more equitable, clearer and easier to understand. This is particularly the case for young people and those from ethnic minorities, which suggests that ‘all out’ elections can improve equality
• The research also suggests that it provides a degree of stability for local authorities, enabling longer term focus
• All out elections would make an approximate saving of over £300,000 over four years by reducing the number of elections held from three to one. In addition, there are less tangible savings of more than £4m over the four-year period
• All out elections would allow us largely to keep the current wards boundaries, which are closely aligned to towns and parishes and existing communities

2. Elections 'by thirds'

This would be similar to what we do now with a third of all councillors up for election each year for three years out of four (with no election in the fourth year). But the change would be that all wards would have the same number of councillors. Benefits of this option include: 

• The benefits of this system have been stated as providing greater stability for the Council in terms of its membership by reducing the risk of wholesale change within the Council
• It allows for succession planning because there is always a mixture of new and experienced Councillors on the Council
• Additionally, electing by thirds provides the electorate a greater opportunity to be involved in decision making at the Council, because the electorate vote more often, and arguments have been put forward that this makes Councillors more democratically accountable.

Why we cannot keep the current system

The Local Government Boundary Commission for England will be reviewing our ward arrangements later this year, and they have already stated that the current arrangements cannot continue as they are.

Therefore, the Council is considering moving to ‘all out’ elections (which would allow wards to remain as they are – with one, two or three councillors) or keeping election by thirds (which would mean changing ward boundaries so that they all have three councillors).

CLARIFICATION: The LGBCE review will require some alteration to ward boundaries whichever option we take. If we keep with 'election by thirds', these boundary changes would be more significant as all wards would have to all have three councillors. If we change to 'all out' elections, the boundary changes are likely to be less significant and the wards would be able to have one, two or three councillors.

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