Agenda item

Report of the Town Clerk.

The Sub-Committee considered a report of the Town Clerk giving options for different voting systems, which could be used in the election of co-opted Members for the Sub-Committee.

Members agreed that they were generally supportive of the report’s proposal to keep the First Past The Post (FPTP) voting system for electing four co-opted Members onto this Sub Committee. Some Members expressed a preference for Single Transferable Vote (STV) as it led to better representation of the Court, but, on balance, agreed that it would be odd to only include one Sub Committee in isolation.

There was one suggestion that at the next election of co-opted Members for this Sub Committee, the votes are counted via both the FPTP and STV systems to see what the different outcomes would be, with the outcome using FPTP being the valid result. Overall, Members felt that this would not be the appropriate way to measure the difference of the two voting systems for various reasons and agreed that the FPTP system should be maintained.

RESOLVED, that:

·         It be recommended to the Policy & Resources Committee that the ‘First Past The Post’ (FPTP) voting system continue to be used for the election of co-opted Members to the Public Relations and Economic Development Sub-Committee.