Government consults on moving WC election date /...and dithers on Parish Council elections/...Wiltshire elections centralised

12.04.00am BST (GMT +0100) Thu 22nd May 2008

The elections to the new Wiltshire Council (WC) are likely to be delayed from the first Thursday in May - traditional local election day - to June 4th 2009, which is the day scheduled for the European elections.

Because the old councils end at the start of April this would mean the citizens of Wiltshire having to survive for two months without any councillors.

The government has published a consultation paper on the question, though the arguments in favour of the change set out in the paper are much stronger than those against.

As the paper says:

"When local and European Parliamentary elections were combined in 2004, the turnout at the European elections was significantly higher than in previous years, up from 24 per cent in 1999 to 38.5 per cent. The Electoral Commission concluded in its follow-up report that combination of the elections was an important factor in the improved turnout.

We therefore believe that the benefits to holding the local and European Parliamentary elections on the same day are:

• it will be more convenient for voters to have to visit the polling station once only, meaning that more voters are likely to participate in the election

• it will result in the election periods for the local and European elections running together and avoid the start of the European election period overlapping with the end of the local election period

• it will reduce costs incurred by local authorities, returning officers and political parties in distributing election material, contacting voters, canvassing and holding the polls themselves

• those responsible for voter awareness campaigns, particularly local authorities, will be able to concentrate their efforts in increasing awareness of one single election day."

The only arguments against are that it might confuse the electorate, and would be slightly more difficult for electoral staff - problems with last year's Scottish election are cited as an example of how things can go wrong.

The consultation runs until August, and an order would then go through parliament in October.

Comment - It clearly makes sense for the two sets of elections to be held on the same day rather than dragging people to the polls twice in two months. The only ridiculous thing is that the government is unable to make a simple decision on a simple matter without going through the charade of a lengthy 'consultation'. Staff and voters in Wiltshire and other shire counties have experience of having two elections on the same day and wouldn't find it a problem.

To see the full consultation paper go to

http://www.info4local.gov.uk/documents/consultations/812948

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Having previously stated that parish council elections in Wiltshire would be delayed until 2013 to mesh in with the WC electoral cycle, the government has become concerned that that might amount to a decision. As the government doesn't like making decisions without a prolonged period of dithering, an official dithering session is now in place. The County and District councils will be consulted on whether the next round of parish elections should be in 2009 or 2013. If they're in 2009 we then get the agonising question of whether all three sets of elections - parish, WC and Euros - should be on the same day.

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The process of centralisation of services in Wiltshire has begun. As of September all the district election teams will move to Chippenham. The new Big Team will have responsibility for managing all the electoral rolls and running all elections including parishes. This causes major disruption to staff, increases in travel expenses, a loss of the informal and personal touch previously enjoyed by customers, a general increase in bureaucracy, and a taste of things to come.