DO you know which party runs your local council? Are you happy about it?

There are too many councils the length and breadth of the land who are governed by the one party, comfortably in control, and are consequently not being held to account by any significant opposition.

To put into context, 104 councils in England and Wales had one party controlling 75 per cent of the seats in 2013.

Here in Warrington, we do not go to the polls this year. This is due to a change which now sees us elect the council as a whole every four years. This is another strand to arguments of lack of accountability.

St Helens though still does elect one third of its councillors three years out of four. One issue that is playing out is green field sites that could be under threat from development.

The ultimate root cause here is a council dominated by the one party, in this case Labour.

The First Past The Post (FPTP) electoral system has exaggerated the support Labour has in St Helens. There are also instances where support of other parties in different parts of the country are exaggerated.

A more proportional electoral system would enable better accountability. The one dominant party would no longer be certain of winning all seats in a safe ward.

Scotland has been using the Single Transferable Vote (STV) since 2007. Under STV, a voter simply ranks as many or as few candidates as possible.

The Scottish experience has resulted in voters having a totally different electoral conversation to their English counterparts.

Activists of minority parties and independent candidates are now able to seek next preference votes of people who would normally vote for a dominant party, as voters do not have the same fear of wasting their vote.

Every one of Scotland’s local government elections since 2007 has seen a higher turnout compared to local elections in England.

It is time England also used STV for local elections.

ANDY WATSON Bewsey