HC Deb 25 May 1972 vol 837 cc1607-9
10. Mr. Sydney Chapman

asked the Secretary of State for the Home Depart- ment if he will take steps to postpone the elections for the new district councils, arranged for Thursday, 12th April, 1973, until at least six weeks after the elections for the new county elections.

Mr. Carlisle

My right hon. Friend has now decided, after consultation with the local authority associations, that the first elections to the new county councils should be held on 12th April, 1973, those to metropolitan and Welsh district councils on 10th May and those to non-metropolitan district councils in England on 7th June. He appreciates the advantages of a rather longer interval between the first two dates, but it is important for the new district councillors to have an adequate period of shadow office.

Mr. Chapman

While appreciating that my hon. and learned Friend has put back the date of the first elections till eight weeks after publication of the electoral registers, a move which will be welcomed by hon. Members on both sides of the House, may I ask whether he still intends to allow only four weeks between the two sets of elections? If so, will he confirm that nominations for the district elections will not close until two weeks after the county elections? In regard to the elections in June, will he have another look at the arrangements in view of the fact that thousands of people may be on holiday, including proportions of certain towns enjoying their tradition wakes week?

Mr. Carlisle

To deal first with the second part of the question, the difficulty is that it is impossible to bring forward the date of 7th June because of the administrative arrangements that have to be made with regard to the warding of the non-metropolitan districts. If one were to put back the date, the only possible thing to do would be to put it back to the autumn, which would leave too short a period between shadow councils being formed and taking over their responsibilities the following April. On the first part of the question, I am informed that the interval that has always existed between county and county district elections has been only a month. Therefore, the same provisions will apply next year as have applied in the past for county and county district elections.

Mr. Terry Davis

Would the Minister consider holding elections for all the councils on the same day?

Mr. Carlisle

We have given consideration to that, but the date of 7th June cannot be brought forward. The only way that that could have been achieved would have been to put back the date of the metropolitan district elections to 7th June. As, amongst other things, those authorities are to be education authorities, it was felt that this was narrowing still further the time lapse between elections next June and the taking up of responsibility next April. When they have to appoint chief officers of departments and when many other matters have to be dealt with, we decided that we were not justified in reducing that period any further.