"We believe that the current voting system acts as a barrier to participation in local democracy. Unjustified outcomes, such as entrenched one-party dominance, greatly exaggerated majorities and parties winning overall control with less than half the votes and sometimes fewer votes than their opponents, feed the belief that voting doesn't make a difference.

In contrast, more representative councils would be more involving of local communities and more accountable to them.

We note the Scottish Executive's proposal to introduce voting reform for local government and the Assembly's consideration of similar reforms for Wales.

We therefore call on the government to introduce a more representative voting system for local government in England."