A MOVE to create a new rule that would allow for individual councillors' votes to be recorded more often has been shot down by the Vale council.
At the moment six councillors need to request a recorded vote on an issue, but Independent Sully councillor Kevin Mahoney recently introduced a motion requesting this be reduced to one in a bid to increase transparency.
The motion was introduced at a full council meeting earlier this year, before being referred to the democratic services committee for examination.
At the meeting of the committee on Wednesday, September 28 the motion was refused.
Councillor Kevin Mahoney said: "MPs votes are recorded and within easy access to the public. I just think we, as councillors, need to be accountable and the public should be aware of how we have voted.
"Sadly, it appears to me that councillors don't want their voting records to be displayed and voters really have to ask why councillors wish their voting records to remain hidden.
"Some suggested that digitising debates or webcasting is good but there are major flaws because are you telling me that a camera will be able to zoom in on every councillor during a vote? And would people be able to identify the councillors from a distance and what would happen if the webcast went down?"
Cllr Neil Moore said: “Any individual councillor can already request that their own position in terms of a vote being formally recorded in the minutes. Meetings of full council are likely to be webcast in the near future and the possibility of introducing electronic voting is currently being considered.
“Following cllr Mahoney’s request, the suggestion was considered by the council’s democratic services committee, which is made up of councillors from all political groups.
"It was the unanimous view of the committee that there was no need to change existing arrangements.”
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