WITH Powys County Council due to discuss changes to the voting system in December, Monmouthshire’s Labour administration is facing calls to rule out any moves to change the voting system to elect councillors.

Devauden councillor Rachel Buckler has put forward a motion for Thursday’s full council meeting urging fellow councillors to reject the proposal from Welsh Government that councils might wish to adopt the ‘Single Transferable Vote’ system.

Under STV, residents would no longer have one or two councillors to represent them because wards would be amalgamated so residents would elect around six to nine councillors to represent them and would rank candidates in an order of preference.

Under the Local Elections (Principal Areas) (Single Transferable Vote) (Wales) Rules 2023, the Welsh Government has given councils the power to change their electoral system to STV ahead of the next local elections in 2027, but it’s a lengthy process involving a statutory consultation and a full boundary review.

To trigger a consultation, a council must vote in support of STV with a majority of at least two thirds of the council. The Conservative Group, which holds almost 40% of the seats on the council has already spoken out against the plans.

Cllr Rachel Buckler said, “Given the severe financial pressures facing the council, including the Leader’s admission that the council is on course to be bankrupt within three years, it would be irresponsible for councillors to waste time on constitutional tinkering that is of no benefit to our residents.

“As a Labour Welsh Government is giving councils the power to switch to the Single Transferable Vote, Labour councillors in Monmouthshire may feel under pressure to do as they’re told and waste time considering this change.

“Members have already had a private briefing about STV and it was clear there is considerable opposition to it but despite this, some councillors wanted to plough ahead with the change even though it’s obvious there isn’t support for it.

“As councillors we should be spending our time considering how we help our residents by protecting the services they rely on and keep their council tax as low as possible. So I’ve put forward this short and simple motion proposing that we rule out any move to STV and waste no further time on the lengthy process to change the way in which councillors are elected.

“STV would erode our local democracy because new multi-member wards would be cover a vast area and residents would not be able to easily hire and fire councillors as they can under first past the post.

“It should be obvious to everyone that there is not the support in Monmouthshire to move to STV so we need to rule it out and focus on the issues that matter to our residents.”