Radical changes for Kirklees Council but only 89 people vote

Dec 9 2009 By Barry Gibson

IT will be one of the biggest changes for years in the way Kirklees Council is run.

But the much-heralded Government initiative to ask the people was a major flop.

Fewer than 90 residents took part in a survey about sweeping changes to the way the Council is run.

The Government is forcing the council to abandon its Cabinet system and choose either a mayor elected by the public or a leader voted in by councillors.

However, only 89 of the more than 400,000 residents in Kirklees took part in the two-month consultation on the plans.

Fifty-two people said they wanted a leader elected by councillors, 25 went for a directly-elected mayor and 12 expressed no preference.

The £5,200 consultation ran from September 14 to November 13 with public notices in the Examiner and an article in the council’s magazine Kirklees Together, which is delivered to houses across the district.

A page on the council’s website outlining the proposals was visited 709 times during the two months.

But council leader Clr Mehboob Khan said the public response was not particularly low.

The Labour man said: "We had a statutory obligation to consult.