We outright reject the Liberal Democrats’ ludicrous plans to bring in an unfair voting system.
Despite only three countries in the world – Fiji, Australia and Papua New Guinea – using the system, nationally the Liberal Democrats have called for a referendum to adopt the new style for counting votes.
‘It is clearly ludicrous,’ said Cllr Lloyd. ‘How can it be right that some of the voting public have more than one vote and get a second bite at the cherry? If the top candidate does not win half of the votes, the last candidate - who is likely to be representing a minority, or possibly extremist – has their votes transferred. How is that fair?’
Other objections include the cost of the system, the time taken to finalise the votes, and the blatant irregular results it will throw up. ‘Just look at the reaction at the Labour Conference when Ed Miliband beat his brother to the leadership, even though David was clearly the out and out first choice,’ added Councillor Lloyd. 'I was pleased to have the support of Cllr Mike Le-Surf, the only Labour Councillor in Brentwood on this motion as he stands up for democracy rather than self interest like the Lib Dems.
‘The Labour party are arguing amongst themselves as to whether they should support AV or not, and the Lib Dems are showing once more how out of touch they are with the public. It is not surprising that they are polling in single figures and that residents are telling us that they will not be supporting them locally.’