Borough proposes plan to allow voters "to kick out" bad councillors

Kingston Council has unveiled plans to give voters the chance to remove their councillor if they fail to meet a set of defined standards.

Under the Royal Borough’s proposals, a number of scenarios could trigger a petition calling for a by-election. These include:

• if a councillor’s attendance at meetings over a municipal year falls below 20%;
• if a councillor attends fewer than two full council or neighbourhood committee meetings within a year;
• if a councillor is convicted of a crime for which a prison sentence has been imposed and the appeal period has expired without the sentence having been overturned;
• if a councillor moves their main residence outside of the borough.

Where one or more of these criteria are met, Kingston’s monitoring officer would consider the circumstances and whether a petition should be launched on the council web site calling for the resignation of the councillor concerned. Such a petition would remain live for three months.

If more than 33% of the registered electors in the ward in question sign the petition, there would be an expectation that the councillor concerned would resign thereby triggering a by-election.

The arrangement would be a non-statutory protocol that members would be required to sign at the earliest opportunity on taking office.

The council has acknowledge that the arrangements could not be forced upon any member as this would require legislation.

Kingston said the move was designed to build greater trust in local government and elected representatives. It forms part of a wider programme of constitutional reforms called Renewing Kingston’s Democracy which the council said it was taking forward in a bid to improve the way it works by engaging better with local people.

The plans – which have been backed by the area’s two MPs, Zac Goldsmith and James Berry – will go before full council in July 2015.

Cllr Kevin Davis, Leader of Kingston Council, said: “At a time of massive challenges for local government we need to connect better than ever before with local people. In order to do that we must win greater trust and that is exactly what these measures are designed to help us do.

“Most local councillors work incredibly hard on behalf of their constituents. But occasionally the behaviour of local councillors falls below a standard that voters have a right to expect. Under these new recall proposals, voters in Kingston would be able to do something about it; to kick them out of office and have a fresh election.”

Cllr Davis added that he would be writing to all the Leaders of the 150 unitary authorities calling on them to follow Kingston’s approach. He will also be lobbying ministers to consider introducing new legislation that would give the protocol a statutory footing.

“I believe this approach should be used across local government to open up transparency, but also show Government that when it comes to recall we must trust the voter and not leave it to committees of politicians to decide when wrong has been done,” he said. “The voter knows best, let’s trust them.”