Agenda item

16.1

It was formally moved by Councillor John Booker, and formally seconded by Councillor Jack Clarkson, that this Council:-

(a)       regrets that the First Three Past the Post system was used to elect the members of the Council last month, believing this to be undemocratic, unfair and unrepresentative, and that its use damages the public perception of our democratic system;

(b)       believes that the use of a Proportional Representation system would have resulted in a council more representative of the way that the people of Sheffield voted, and would have ensured that every voter feels they have a voice to represent them on the Council;

(c)        further believes that by electing the council through Proportional Representation, there would be more co-operation and consensus in decision making, and that the people of Sheffield would benefit from a more efficient and transparent council;

(d)       notes that the Labour Group’s majority on this Council is more disproportional than the Conservative Party’s majority in Parliament, with a Gallagher disproportionality index of 16.8, compared to 9.8 for the Conservatives in Westminster;

(e)       notes that Proportional Representation is used to elect local councillors in Scotland, Northern Ireland and the Republic of Ireland, as well as members of the London Assembly, Welsh Assembly and Scottish Parliament;

(f)        believes that there is no convincing argument against the use of Proportional Representation, except that it preserves the dominance of the one party that benefits from it most; and

(g)       furthermore, calls on the Leader of the Council to write to the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government, requesting that Sheffield City Council be allowed to trial a Proportional Representation system for electing councillors.

16.2

Whereupon, it was formally moved by Councillor Zoe Sykes, and formally seconded by Councillor Mike Drabble, as an amendment, that the Motion now submitted be amended by the deletion of all the words after the words “That this Council” and the addition of the following words:-

(a)         notes there are a range of views on different electoral systems, both between and within political parties;

(b)         recalls the referendum on the alternative vote method that took place in 2011 and that the proposal to introduce AV was rejected by the electorate;

(c)         finds it ironic that UKIP favours proportional representation - the same system used in the European Parliament – over the traditional British first-past-the-post voting system; and

(d)         believes the people of Sheffield gave a clear mandate to the Labour Party in the recent local elections and that UKIP always manage to find an excuse for their own electoral failures.

16.3

On being put to the vote, the amendment was carried.

16.4

The original Motion, as amended, was then put as a Substantive Motion in the following form and carried:-