Reading councillors could be elected for just one year at next year’s elections, as coronavirus delays and boundary changes affect the normal four-year term.
The council will hold one-thirds elections in 2021, with 16 of Reading Borough Council’s (RBC) 46 councillors standing for election.
Next year was due to be a fallow year with no local election but, because the 2020 elections were cancelled due to the Covid pandemic, Reading’s elections will now take place in 2021, with 2020 effectively the fallow year.
Speaking to the Local Democracy Reporting Service (LDRS), Councillor Jeanette Skeats, leader of the Conservative group at RBC, said: “It has just messed it up this year. It has put it out of sync.
“My personal opinion is that it would have made sense to just have all our elections in 2022.
“However, there is the other aspect of democracy. People don’t vote candidates in for a six-year term, which it would be in some cases.
“I can see why some people would want to have elections next year. But we did say in the past, maybe it would be more cost-effective to have elections every four years.”
Normally councillors are voted in for four years in Reading, but new boundary changes coming in from 2022 mean Reading Borough will have a completely new map of wards and two extra councillors.
READ MORE: Final Reading election ward boundary changes confirmed, including two extra councillors
Therefore, the 2012 elections will be followed by all-out elections in 2022, with 48 councillor positions up for grabs in 16 wards.
This will then be followed by a return to one-thirds elections, with one councillor from each ward who got the least votes standing for election in 2023.
This means a councillor standing in 2021 could potentially end up standing for election for three years in a row.
This is something that has happened in the past, when the council became a unitary authority and when boundaries have changed.
Another one-thirds election will follow in 2024, with the councillors who received the second least votes in each ward standing for election, getting a guaranteed two years in the post.
The councillors voted in with the most votes in each ward will get a full four years before having to stand for election, with a break in 2025 followed by one-thirds elections in 2026.
Speaking to the LDRS, Cllr Jason Brock, leader of RBC, said: “Elections are, quite obviously, the most vital element of a representative democracy and it is entirely right that residents have the opportunity to express their views at the ballot box.
“With all the disruption of 2020 it seems perfectly appropriate to me that the Electoral Commission would seek to get us back to normality as quickly as possible.
“Naturally, I hope that the electorate right across Reading will continue to support the work that the council’s Labour administration is undertaking as well the plans we have to invest in our town’s future.’
Cllr Skeats, however, raised concerns about campaigning during Covid times.
She said: “It is going to be hard from the candidates’ point of view. Normally we go and knock on the door and introduce ourselves. Some people may not want that intrusion.
“Because of Covid we need to be cautious, but if the powers that be say to go ahead with it we will go ahead with it.
“We don’t have the powers to say no. Democracy has to prevail.”
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