A Democratic Deficit?

We have already published what will undoubtedly be but the opening salvo in HCS’s deliberations over the Government’s English Devolution White Paper. While the intention to devolve some central government powers to regional authorities led by Mayors was included in the Labour Party manifesto for the recent general election, further local government reorganisation was not. It was therefore a surprise – although not, apparently, to our County and Borough Councillors who have been discussing this for months – to discover in last month’s White Paper that our current two-tier structure of a County Council and District/Borough Councils was to be abolished.

This new imposition by the Government is not mentioned until page 100 of the 118-page document and occupies fewer than three pages in total. Detail is therefore very lacking and our previous post set out all that we can glean so far. There is one aspect that causes us particular concern however, that is contained is this single sentence:

“It is vital that new unitary councils get off to a good start, so we will work closely with local leaders to explore what support they might need to develop robust proposals and implement new structures, including taking decisions to postpone local elections where this will help to smooth the transition process.” (Our emphasis.)

At this point, it may be worth reminding readers of the current local election arrangements. These operate on a four-year cycle, with elections for every seat on Hampshire County Council (HCC) every fourth year (2017, 2021, 2025, 2029 …) and elections for one third of the seats on Havant Borough Council (HBC) in each of the three remaining years of the cycle (2026, 2027, 2028, 2030 …). The Government is offering County Councils the option of deferring the election due on 1 May 2025 until May 2026. The plan also seems to be that 2026 will be the final election year for HBC, with the first election for seats on our new Unitary Authority, whatever that looks like, in 2027.

We learnt from the full Council meeting of HCC on 9 January that the Council Leader (Nick Adams-King, Con, Romsey Rural) was keen to take up this offer and most of his fellow councillors, with one or two noble exceptions (such as Keith House, Lib Dem, Hamble), agreed. His argument was that they would all be very busy making plans for the new Unitary Authority structure. This, frankly, doesn’t hold water. It is the council officers, not our elected representatives, who will be doing most of the work. If there were to be a few changes in the personalities giving political guidance as the result of an election, this would not have a major impact on the project.

At the HBC meeting on 15 January, our Council Leader (Phil Munday, Lab, St Faith’s) suggested the reason for the deferral was that the pre-election purdah period would prevent any decisions from being taken, consultations held or communications issued between 24 March and election day on 1 May. This is also a very weak argument as it is only the very rushed timescale chosen by the Government itself that makes this an issue.

The Society’s view is that our County Councillors’ democratic mandate expires on 1 May this year. There is no good reason for the election to be deferred and to do so would deprive residents of their democratic right to elect their representatives. We won’t speculate on the reasons why individual councillors might wish to delay their exposure to the verdict of the electorate. We certainly don’t seek to cast doubt on their commitment to public service. The Society simply believes that a deferral of the election is an unnecessary breach of the covenant between government and the governed and we fear that it may prove to be a precedent for the cancellation of the Borough elections due in 2026.

Accordingly, should the Government accede to HCC’s request to defer the election, we will call upon all County Councillors for Divisions within the HBC area to resign their seats and thereby trigger by-elections. Thus will democracy be preserved in Havant and, who knows, elsewhere in Hampshire as well.