At the full council meeting in December I presented a notice of motion for Teignbridge District Council to support electoral reform. It is not in Teignbridge’s power to make these changes in law, it requires national government action, as has happened in Scotland and Wales.

My notice of motion asks Teignbridge to agree that it supports these changes and write to key government officials (The Prime minister, the home secretary and the local MPs requesting that changes are made. Details of the motion are available here: https://democracy.teignbridge.gov.uk/mgAi.aspx?ID=6292

The motion was introduced as follows.

Four years ago, the people of the United States elected Donald Trump as their president. The majority had actually voted for Hilary Clinton but they use First Past The Post and block voting in the electoral college system. This can result in a win for one, when the majority prefer the other.

In their more recent elections there were five US cities where a proposal for ranked choice voting was included on the ballot paper. All 5 were successful.

On the 18th of November, just last week, The Welsh Parliament voted to pass the Local Government and Elections (Wales) Bill.

This gives councils in wales the power to change from First Past the Post to proportional representation using single transferable vote.

It also means that Wales now joins Scotland in allowing voters aged 16 and 17. These young adults can leave home, can start a family, can get married, can work, pay taxes and can join the armed forces. All at 16 but under current rules with elections every 4 years, they could be almost 22 before they have any say in the running of our country.

In my ward of Kenn Valley in the last administration there were two Conservative councillors with less than half the vote, and no representatives for the other half. When I stood for election I promised to fight this injustice. Now we have all three liberal democrats for Kenn valley including myself, with less than half the vote.

I am still fighting this injustice because this is not about advantages or disadvantages for our parties, it is about making our democracy better at representing the views and needs of all in our communities. It is time to fix this and I hope members of council and the executive will support this motion towards doing that.