Letter: No contest at polls

Sir: While all of the interest has been focused on who everybody is going to vote for in the Assembly elections, a vital issue of the local elections in Wales has been ignored.

In many unitary authorities in Wales, councillors have already been elected unopposed. This means that some people will have no voice on the local government elections. They won't be able to say whether they want more spent on schools or less spent on roads. They won't be able to praise or condemn their local councillor's record. They won't be able to do this because unopposed councillors don't have to face an election.

Last year the Welsh office considered the large number of unopposed wards in Wales at election time. They ignored electoral methods of dealing with the problems such as proportional representation. Instead they concluded that all political parties would have to try harder to contest more wards. A year later, a large number of people still don't have a vote in the local elections. Isn't it time to reconsider another electoral system that ends unopposed wards and brings more accountability to local government?

RUSSELL DEACON

Senior Lecturer

UWIC Business School

Cardiff