Agenda item

The Committee received a report, which updated Members on the ‘Community Poll’ taking place to seek the views of the Doncaster Electorate about the next stages in Devolution proposals. 

In presenting the report, the Monitoring Officer reported that following the extraordinary Council meeting on Thursday, 9th November, 2017, Council had agreed that Doncaster Council would hold a Community Poll in December, seeking the views of Doncaster’s electorate as to whether they would prefer Doncaster to pursue a Devolution deal based upon either a Wider Yorkshire area or upon the Sheffield City Region arrangement.  The Local Government Act 2003 provides that Councils can carry out a Community Poll of their inhabitants on issues regarding the delivery of services. The Act provides that the Returning Officer of the Council can decide the means used to take the views of its residents.  It was noted that whilst the results of the poll are not legally binding, the Council has agreed to do its best to respect the outcome of the Poll.

The Monitoring Officer advised that for reasons of efficiency, costs and practicalities, the Council was to carry out a postal vote exercise to those persons registered on the electoral roll, who would receive a voting pack in the first week of December, comprising of an introductory letter from the Mayor, a leaflet providing information about both devolution options, a ballot paper and a return envelope. People would be given the option to either complete returns on-line or by post. There will be no polling stations utilised for this Poll. The ballot paper would be marked with a unique identifyingcode for security purposes, but would not require the voter’s signature.  It was noted that the cost of the community poll was estimated to be in the region of £120,000, which would include costs for postage and printing.  Costs may vary, dependent upon the number of postal vote returns. There is a significant saving if voters use the on-line option.  It was explained that the higher the turnout the more expensive it would be.

It was further reported that the election process is to be carried out by the Electoral Reform Services (ERS).  ERS are leading experts in this area and have previously carried out devolution ballots in other local authorities. The Council’s internal Electoral Services Team would not be involved to a great extent, but would provide ERS with data, deal with the more complicated telephone enquiries and provide general support to the process.  It was further reported that postal vote returns would go directly to an ERS address, were they are opened securely and then scanned and the scanner reads the results.  ERS have given an undertaking to turn around the postal vote results within 24 hours when the poll closes on 1200 noon on 20th December 2017.

Discussion followed, during which the Electoral Services Manager and Monitoring Officer responded to various questions from Members and clarification was provided in respect of the following issues:-

• The counting of postal vote returns would be carried out by the Electoral Reform Services.

• Voting packs were to be sent out to the electorate on 1st December 2017 and it was expected that people would be in receipt of the packs on 2nd or 3rd December

• The Council will be using social media channels to encourage people to submit returns on line in order to reduce costs to the authority and publicise the options available to them for voting. 

• As with general and local elections, only those people on the electoral register that are aged 18 years or above on the date of the community poll will be eligible to vote. 

• It was noted that the Council were actively encouraging people not currently on the register to be included on the electoral register.  This was to ensure that as many people as possible would be eligible to vote. The deadline for the receipt of information to ERS was Friday, 24 November.

• In respect of the inclusion of ‘None of the above’ question on the ballot paper, it was noted that this was not an option at this point in time. “None of the above” is not generally an option on ballot papers in any event.  Doncaster Council have previously committed itself to devolution. The purpose of this poll is to seek views on whether or not the residents of Doncaster favoured a wider Yorkshire arrangement or the Sheffield City Region option.  Members were advised that the wording of the questions on the ballot paper had been drafted following advice from Counsel.

A wider discussion on devolution was then held by members of the Committee.

The Chair on behalf of the Committee, thanked the Electoral Services Manager for her work in compiling the report.

RESOLVED that the Committee in noting the report, welcomed the Democratic initiative taken by the Council in respect of this issue.