By Election Expected in Lincoln City's Bracebridge Ward

A By-Election is expected to be called to fill a vacancy in the Bracebridge Ward of Lincoln City Council following the removal of Cllr. Darren Grice, Independent (Bracebridge Ward), after a six month absence from meetings of the Council.

Mr. Andrew Taylor, Chief Executive of the City Council, explained:

"Where a member does not attend any meeting of the council for a period of six consecutive months from the date of their last attendance, then they cease to be a member of the council, unless they have received prior approval of absence.

"No such request has been received from councillor Grice. Councillor Grice’s last attendance at a meeting was Council on 8th January 2013. Accordingly, as there are no meetings scheduled which he could now attend, his term of office will cease on 8 July 2013.

"The Council must then declare the vacancy. Where the council declares the office to be vacant, the election to fill the vacancy must be held within 35 days of this date."

A timetable for the by-election is expected to be published shortly after Monday, 8th July 2013 and will mean a by-election will probably be held on Thursday, 8th August 2013.

In the last election, in the Lincoln Bracebridge Division of Lincolnshire County Council, which covers, broadly speaking, the same geographical area as the Bracebridge Ward of Lincoln City Council the result was:

Conservatives 36.11%, Labour 34.00%, Liberal Democrat 3.72%, UKIP 23.57% and Lincolnshire Independent 2.61%.

The Conservatives will hope their candidate is successful, and have impressive form in the area with six out of seven wins since 2007. Labour will hope to show they are making advances, although this is not a strong area for them - they took a city council seat in 2012 with a majority of seven votes. UKIP will be looking to improve their poll rating from May's local election and will seek to improve their position to second place, from third. The Liberal Democrats, who have never had particular strength in Lincoln, will want to improve their poll rating and see it back above 5%.

Above: Election results (% vote) of contests in the Bracebridge Ward and Lincoln Bracebridge Division 2007-2013

Traditionally this seat has not been contested by the Lincolnshire Independents, if they field a candidate they will probably have limited impact. The BNP have infrequently fielded candidates in this seat and they could again for a by-election, depending on the strength of their party locally following the party's route from the electoral battlefield in Britain.

West Lindsey District Council Move to Whole 'All Out' Elections

Yesterday evening Conservative-led West Lindsey District Council voted to change the electoral process by which elections to the local authority are conducted.

Since the authority's creation in April 1974 the district has elected councillors by the 'Thirds' principle - that is to say that every year an election is held for one third of the seats on the council and in the fourth year an election takes place for Lincolnshire County Council. Councillors are elected to serve a four year term of office.

 

West Lindsey District Council is one of the two hundred and one local authorities that are part of the two-tier system of local government - with a county council and district council. Of these councils sixty-nine elect their members by the 'thirds' method, currently used by West Lindsey District Council to elect one third of the membership every year excepting the year when elections are held for the county council. The majority, one hundred and twenty-three elect their members in 'all out', whole council elections, whereby every councillor is elected at the same time. The remaining seven authorities elect by the 'halves' method where half the councillors are elected at any election, in one year the county council has an election and one year no election takes place.

 

The West Lindsey district is divided into twenty five wards the wards vary in terms of the number of councillors returned and a number of other factors. Gainsborough North and East both return three councillors, the South West ward returns two councillors together with the Caistor, Cherry Willingham, Market Rasen, Nettleham, Saxilby, Scotter and Welton wards. Finally, the Bardney, Dunholme, Fiskerton, Hemswell, Kelsey, Lea, Middle Rasen, Scampton, Stow, Sudbrooke, Thonock, Torksey, Waddingham & Spital, Wold View and Yarborough wards all return one councillor.

 

In total there are thrity-seven councillors elected as members of West Lindsey District Council.

Across the non-metropolitan district councils (both in single-tier and two-tier areas) in England twenty-four percent of the wards are single-member wards, forty percent are two-member wards and thirty-six percent represent three-member wards. (Following the creation of a unitary authority in Central Bedfordshire there will be six four-member wards for a transitional period between 2009 and 2011.) As a general rule a two-member ward contains around twice as many electors as a single-member ward and a three-member ward contains three times as many electors as a single-member ward.

 

Where a district council holds elections by thirds a third of the councillors for the whole council will be elected at each annual election. Electors in a three-member ward will vote in each of the elections, electors in a two-member ward will vote in two out of three and electors in a single-member ward will vote in one of the three elections. The particular year that those electors will vote varies from authority to authority.

As of yesterday's meeting elections for all councillors will take place once every four years - with the first whole council election on Thursday, 5th May 2011.

 

Some of the benefits of the Whole Council system are listed, although not an exhaustive list:

• A Council has a clear mandate from the electorate for four years.
• An elector can vote for the whole Council as well as a Councillor. It creates greater stability over the four year period with no chance (subject to by-elections) of a change in political control.
• Greater propensity for change in political control.
• It avoids a situation where political control of the Council can change in election by thirds when some electors in single member wards have no opportunity to vote.
• All electors get an equal opportunity to vote and vote together (currently some only vote once or twice in the three yearly cycle if they live in a one or two member Ward).
• Greater publicity for whole Council election may generate higher turnout.
• Evidence suggests that there is slightly higher turn out in whole Council elections
• Evidence suggests that electorate associates more clearly with whole Council elections.
• There is likely to be reduced expenditure for the Council because of running fewer elections.
• Correspondingly a reduced expenditure by political parties because of fewer elections.
• Less campaigning needed by parties.

Delight as 'All-Out' Elections Proposal Fails

A bid, spearheaded by Cllr. Adam Duguid (Market Rasen), to change the election cycle of West Lindsey District Council has been failed at a cost of around £10,000.

The ruling Conservative Group of West Lindsey District Council had hoped that its plan to hold elections once every four years would be accepted with the support of the Liberal Democrat opposition. But at a council vote, most opposition members opted against the proposals, deciding to continue with the current system of election by thirds.

The District of West Lindsey is divided into twenty-five wards with a total number of District Councillors representing these wards being thrity-seven with each Councillor elected for a term of four years.

The Election of Councillors is by thirds, therefore, elections take place each year, apart from the years 2009, 2013, 2017 etc. when elections for the Lincolnshire County Council take place.

Under the current arrangement, a third of councillors are up for election each year and in the fourth year no elections are held.

Council leader Bernard Theobald said he was disappointed the plans did not go through.

"If you keep going back to the electorate and asking them to vote then they can get election fatigue," he said.

"A total of 75 per cent of people who responded during the consultation said they were for the change. We are here to respond to the wishes of the people and this is a lot of money if you're just going to ignore that."

The council said the move to the new system would allow the authority to improve long-term planning, reduce confusion in the community and reduce costs.

The £10,000 consultation, which attracted 1,800 responses from the public was held at the end of last year. Cllr. Theobald said the move would have saved the authority around £60,000 over the next three years.

The vote required at least two-thirds of councillors at the meeting to vote in favour of the change to the cycle. But only 19 of the 34 members present decided it was a good idea.

Under the current election by thirds system the Conservatives on West Lindsey District Council had achieved their highest number of Conservative Councillors. As of January 2009 the Council consisted of 21 Conservatives, 15 Liberal Democrats and 1 Independent. Based on an analysis by Giles McNeill using an all out election system the Council would likely consist of 17 Conservatives, 19 Liberal Democrats and 1 Independent. The Prediction was based on a number of factors, including: Past election results (since 2006), current majority of incumbents, an analysis of the last time the authority held an all out election (1999). The past elections were weighted to give as accurate result as could be generated from the data.

You can watch the full Council debate online here.