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This website has been created for the residents of Abbotts Barton and surrounding areas so that you can keep up to-date with what's going on.

Apart from news you can find information about events, campaigns, and how to contact councillors.

Abbotts Barton Community Group is a community association which serves the people of Abbotts Barton and aims to act as a community anchor organisation. The main areas of work for the Group are:
  • ☐ To enable residents to find out how we can make where we live even better and do something about it.
  • ☐ To run events and activities for the benefit of inhabitants of Abbotts Barton.
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Big Lunch 2014
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Wednesday 2 April 2014

Today the City Councillors will vote which electoral system they prefer

Today there will be Special Meeting of the City Council (at 7.00 pm):

"All Members of the Council are summoned to attend.
Under Sections S33 of the Local Government and Public Involvement in Health Act 2007, as amended by the Localism Act 2011, a resolution of a special meeting of Council is required to enable the Council, should it decide to do so, to make a change from the existing system of election by thirds, to whole Council (all out) elections.
(NB. A majority of at least two thirds of the Council present and voting, is required to make any change to the Council’s electoral cycle)"

Earlier this year a public consultation was held with these results (see CAB2567 on the meeting page):

Public Consultation Results Summary (to date) 
Retention of one third system - 80 (52.3%)
Change to whole Council (all out) - 73 (47.7%)

Parish Council responses (to date) 
Retention of one third system - 7
Change to whole Council (all out) - 1

Other organisations (to date) 
Retention of one third system - 2
Change to whole Council (all out) - 0

As you can see there wasn't a lot of public participation in the consultation, 153 votes hardly represents a whole city - but looking at the results in total, it seems there is a slight tendency to keeping the one third system, and a strong preference for this in the Parish Council responses.

As the Council has described it, both systems have their advantages and disadvantages:

Advantages of the one third system 

  • The Council is more frequently accountable to the electorate 
  • Voters are more regularly engaged with the democratic process 
  • The number of new Councillors being elected is usually far less than with whole Council elections. Therefore some experience is retained and change can be managed more effectively 

Advantages of the whole Council (all-out) system 

  • It provides a four year term of office for an Administration to deliver its programme 
  • It avoids ‘voter fatigue’ by not asking the electorate to vote so often 
  • It costs less to hold whole Council elections 

I'll be interested to find out what the result of tonight's vote will be. The result will not only affect how we are going to vote in the coming years but also more immediately the way in which the future warding arrangements are implemented (to be done by the Local Government 
Boundary Commission for England (LGBC) later this year).

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