Election cycle change thrown out despite winning public favour

Plymouth City Council is to retain its annual election system despite the public favouring a change to once every four year elections. The resolution for ‘whole council’ elections was lost after 32 members voted against it and 16 were in favour.

A consultation during the summer produced over 7,000 responses with 57 per cent of people wanting a change and only 35 per cent favouring the status quo of ‘elections by thirds’ .

Under the current system 19 of the 57 councillors are elected every year in a four year cycle with no elections in the fourth year. It was estimated that the cost savings from holding one election for all members every four years would be £1.4 million over a decade.

But some councillors questioned the figures as the cost of by-elections had not been included and there had been five of those in the last 18 months, the council heard.

Cllr Jeremy Goslin (Lab, Peverell) said he favoured the current process as “more democracy was a good thing” and you shouldn’t put a price on it.

He said only three per cent of the people of Plymouth cared enough to respond to the consultation and that was not an adequate representation of the electorate.

Cllr William Noble (Lab, Moorview) said elected members were more in contact with people if they had to canvas every year and leader of the council Cllr Tudor Evans (Lab, Ham) denied that an authority in office for four years gave it stability.

He said it could be locked into “bad and erroneous” decision making and referred to the four yearly elected Thurrock Council which was effectively declared bankrupt in 2022 after it borrowed £1.5 billion to invest in green energy companies.

“The poor people of Thurrock had to wait years to do something about it,” he said. He urged councillors not to vote against democracy to “save a couple of bob” especially when you looked at the bigger picture and £450 million a year that was spent by the council, he said.

He said councillors who turned up on the doorstep every year were not afraid to be judged. “Annual elections ground us, we hear the discontent and the praise of the local voters every year.”

Cllr Bill Stevens (Lab, Devonport) said cutting back on elections was cutting back on accountability. But Cllr Sally Cresswell (Lab, Stoke) said the public were tired of elections and councillors could engage with residents without being on an election campaign. She said people were also confused by the current election process.

Conservative leader Cllr Andy Lugger (Southway) and Cllr Chris Wood (Con, Eggbuckland) said the council should vote with the will of the people and support the change. There was also concern that more frequent elections would create a bigger carbon footprint.

“We said this was not a referendum but it was a vote and it does not matter whether three per cent, 10 or 30 per cent of the electorate took part, we have to accept what they said,” Cllr Lindsay Gilmour (Lab, Moor View) exclaimed.

Cllr Patrick Nicholson (Ind, Plympton St Mary) said four yearly elections allowed the council to be more strategic and members were not then just looking at the short term to keep them in office.

Discussions with the public should take place daily or weekly and not just at election time, he said, and added that 7,000 people who took part in the consultation was a lot more than the 100 or so who responded to the budget.

“We should listen, learn and follow their lead,” he said.

For the resolution to be passed there had to be a two thirds majority in favour. Councillors were asked to vote independently and not follow a party whip.

Six councillors abstained from voting and three were missing from the debate. The majority of Labour councillors voted to retain the status quo.

Stakeholders the Devon and Cornwall police and crime commissioner, the Arts University Plymouth, Plymouth Community Homes and Marjons University were all in favour of ‘whole council’ elections.

Plymouth is one of just a few South West councils that holds elections by thirds.

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