Leader – Political persuasions
Four years ago, Hackney Council abolished its Overview and Scrutiny Board, whose job it was to coordinate the scrutiny commissions that hold the mayor and cabinet to account.
A year later, in 2015, the Conservative government abolished the Audit Commission that had provided annual independent assessments of local government services.
Meanwhile, Hackney Council removed the public gallery from the council chamber.
With the erosion of formal mechanisms for political accountability, a sure-fire way of guaranteeing that Hackney Council regularly delivers quality services to residents is to ensure that there is greater political diversity.
Our majoritarian electoral system means that with 56 per cent of the votes, the Labour party is able to sweep 88 per cent of the seats on the local assembly.
Local residents don’t like elections that work this way, as evidenced by the fact that Hackney had the second-highest ‘yes’ vote in the ill-fated 2011 referendum on moving away from a first-past-the-post system.
Yet we do not have the option of electoral reform on 3 May. All we can do – British, EU and Commonwealth citizens alike – is to change how we vote and whom we elect.
And what Hackney needs to enhance accountability is a larger opposition. With three and four councillors respectively, the Liberal Democrats and the Conservatives are hard pressed to keep track of everything the council is doing while at the same time handling constituent requests and keeping their fingers on the pulse of community opinion.
Only by increasing the number of opposition councillors can Hackney residents of all political persuasions be sure that someone is monitoring what the local powers-that-be are up to and holding them to their promises.
The Hackney Citizen therefore urges readers to take this into consideration when they cast their three ward votes on 3 May.
Democratic debate and robust policies are something we all deserve, and we will only get it by bringing greater diversity into local politics.