Move to change cycle of district elections

COUNCILLORS will decide shortly whether to change the election cycle in North Herts.

They will be looking at a proposal which would see the full council elected every four years.

At the moment members of North Herts District Council are elected on the basis of a third at a time each year for three years out of four.

But in a report Cllr Andrew Young, portfolio holder for policy, told the council's scrutiny committee on Tuesday that a change of the election cycle could provide "clarity" for voters.

The move comes after a consultation exercise from the Electoral Commission which looked into the question of partial elections and whole council elections.

It suggested the case for whole council elections would see:

- Greater possibility of wholesale change in control may encourage participation while too frequent elections might dilute public interest.

- Opportunity for all electors to influence the composition of the authority at the same time.

- May tend to encourage greater long-term planning by authorities and discourage continuous election campaigning.

The commission, however, said that under the current election cycle voters could impose "immediate political accountability" and that with a third of members being elected there would be less "drastic changes" in political direction.

In a Government White Paper, Strong Local Leadership - Quality Public Services, it was said: "The current cycle of local government elections is confusing."

There was criticism, too, that electing a third of members could "lessen the impact" on a change in control of a council.

The district council has estimated that running a full election next year will cost about £108,000. The cost of electing a third of members in May was about £60,000 and running one whole election could save between £17,000 and £22,000-a-year.

The move to whole council elections is likely to see a higher number of by-elections which will cost between £1,000 and £1,500 to run.