Written evidence to be reported to the House
Local Government and Public Involvement in Health Bill
4:30 pm
Gordon Keymer: First, the fact that the choice is in there is excellent. I fully support that. When we got control of our own council, the first thing we did was have a public referendum and then write to the Government, saying, “We want to move to all-out elections; at the moment, we are in thirds.” We were told that the Government wanted more elections, not fewer. I am very pleased about that. I think that it is very important. But I would not go further than that, because I think that it is a classic case of local choice. There are strong arguments in favour of both. I personally believe that four-yearly elections are strategically much better. If you get anything near to a hung council, annual elections are a nightmare: you never stop campaigning and if one side produces a good idea, the other side has to show that it is bad because they fear that it will be used in the next election. I support four-yearly elections. On the other hand, thirds is much better for running an efficient election operation. I think that it is very much open to local choice. In fact, I would have to go back to my own authority again and say, “In 2000, you wanted to go for all-out elections. Do you still want to do that?” I welcome the opportunity very much.