THE level of borrowing reportedly undertaken by Warrington Borough Council should be a big concern for all Warrington residents irrespective of where we stand on the political spectrum (Warrington Guardian, December 24).

Whilst I appreciate Warrington South MP Andy Carter drawing attention to this in the House of Commons, it should also be pointed out that Mr Carter and the Conservative Party are part of the problem here and not the solution.

When the people of Warrington went to the polls in 2016 to elect the whole council, the Labour Party polled just under 49 per cent of the votes cast.

Due to the winner takes all voting system, this translated into Labour winning 77 per cent of the seats and 100 percent of the power.

As much as voting at a local election should be exclusively about local issues, the reality is this does not always happen.

Many people will use local elections as a chance to kick the Government of the day.

While the use of the first past the post voting system is widely acknowledged to benefit the Conservative Party in general elections, large periods of Tory rule at Westminster will always breed one-party state Labour councils in defiance.

Even if Russ Bowden and co do get shown the door in 2021, Warrington Labour can always reinvent themselves and come again in the future.

Had the 2016 Warrington Council election been held instead under a system of proportional representation (PR), I don’t believe Labour would be now in charge on their own.

As systems of PR give voters an incentive to vote for what they actually believe in, I would also suggest it is highly likely that Labour would not have even polled 49 per cent of the vote.

Consequently, decisions taken since 2016 would have needed crossparty consensus, and Labour would have been blocked from taking dangerous borrowing decisions by other parties.

For as long as Mr Carter and the Conservative Party continue to support first past the post elections, this is why they are part of the problem.

ANDY WATSON Bewsey