This Council notes with grave concern that visitor numbers in Brighton & Hove dropped by more than 14% year on year in the first four month period of 2012/13

Notice of Motion

PROPORTIONAL REPRESENTATION AND VOTER TRIALS

Green GROUP PROPOSED ALTERATION TO THE MOTION

That the motion be amended to insert a new recommendation as shown in bold italics.

(1) Recent legislation published by the Welsh Government, paving the way for Votes at 16 and Single Transferable Vote (STV) in local elections and notes further that Wales follows the voting method for elections in Northern Ireland and Scotland.

Wales, Scotland, Northern Ireland and the London Assembly all now use proportional systems;

(2) England remains the only country in the UK where local elections are undertaken using the First Past the Post (FPTP) voting system, and, that England is the only country in Europe to use such a system.

(3) The damaging Voter ID trials undertaken earlier this year in the local elections, and plans announced in the Queen’s speech to introduce a Photographic ID requirement. Of 44.6M votes in 2017, electoral fraud resulted in 1 conviction or 0.000063%

This council therefore, requests that the Policy & Resources Committee, considers calling for a report detailing the implications of Voter ID on residents in the city and that the report explores the impact of the FPTP electoral system on local elections in Brighton and Hove and how this compares to the popular vote and

That the Chief Executive be requested to:

· Write to the Members of Parliament for Brighton Pavilion, Brighton Kemptown and Hove asking them to express support for proportional representation at local and general elections along the lines of the cross-party ‘Make Votes Matter’ campaign for proportional representation; and

· Write to the Minister for the Cabinet Office, Minister for the Constitution and the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government and their Shadow Cabinet counterparts to consider introducing a proportional voting system for local and general elections.

Proposed by: Councillor Mac Cafferty Seconded by: Councillor Clare

LSE studies have found that elections characterised by First Past the Post tend to lead to unrepresentative Parliaments and disproportional representation in Government. This can contribute to wider voter disenfranchisement in politics and the results of the Voter ID trials from May’s elections produced a number of worrying results, including more than 700 voters not returning to vote after being turned away.

https://www.makevotesmatter.org.uk/home

Electoral Reform Society Press Release on Welsh Government Legislation: https://bit.ly/34vwJlV

Evaluation of 2019 Voter ID trials: https://bit.ly/35zj9zt

Motion if carried to read:

The council notes:

Wales, Scotland, Northern Ireland and the London Assembly all now use proportional systems;

That the Chief Executive be requested to: