Who votes for what in Council?

Some readers are interested in how our (and other) councillors vote in Council on key issues.

Now, when councillors vote they do so in meetings that the public may attend and view, except for minimal parts of a Council meeting where confidential matters are discussed and the public is excluded. These confidential matters generally have to do with commercial or tender issues that would be prejudiced if publicised. Although nearly all voting takes place in public, there is nowhere on the Elmbridge Borough Council website, or anywhere else, that records who voted for what in Council. In fact EBC's Executive and Member Services department informs us that votes are recorded only if the Council itself asks for a recorded vote. This seems to happen very rarely.

We put to the EBC and the Borough Solicitor, Frances Rutter, these points:

◊ Councillors' voting records are a matter of public interest to the electorate that they represent.

◊ They should be made readily accessible on the excellent Elmbridge website in the interests of accountability, just as nationally one may readily access online (and in print) the voting record of one's MP.

◊ All the more so if further powers are devolved from central to local government as both major national political parties say they favour.

The Borough Solicitor kindly replied that after discussion with the Head of Executive and Member Services the Executive feels that it would not be practicable for the Committee Officers to note who voted in a particular way each time a vote is taken on a matter; a situation which may occur a number of times in any meeting. There are 60 Councillors and often, at full Council for example, votes are taken by a counted show of hands. This frequently happens on amendments and counter-amendments to substantive motions throughout a debate. In the past the Council considered implementing electronic voting in the Council Chambers, which would clearly make the recording of individual votes easier but thus far, the cost has proved prohibitive.

This seems a reasonably pragmatic reply. If you want to know how councillors vote you may have to attend the meeting as a member of the public and see for yourself.

At the same time, Councillors (and the executive) need to be constantly aware of public interest in, and entitlement to know, how their elected representatives vote in Council, particularly where decisions concern key regulations, services or expenditure. This consideration should be high on the list of priorities when significant decisions come before the Council. Perhaps Committee Officers could have a standing instruction to prompt the Council to record a vote if there is a voting issue of recognisable importance?

Meanwhile, here at the TD & WG Residents' Association we shall prompt our own councillors to give their electorate an indication of how votes on key issues go - as in the recent (Dec 2006) news item on recycling.

Of course, the Conservatives and Lib Dems vote on key issues by party whip rather than responsiveness to the electorate so it is easier for them!