SOUTHAMPTON City Council should move to four-yearly elections.

Much of the focus of the incoming consultation about changes to council governance will focus on how many councillors the city should have.

This is a red herring, as the most radical proposal with the biggest long term benefits will be the council moving away from its current inefficient system of annual elections and embracing “all-out” elections on a four year basis.

I was a councillor in the city from 2012-2016, for over two years of that time I served in the cabinet as part of Simon Letts’ Labour administration. During my time on the council, the reality is we didn’t always make decisions based on a prudent or long-term view, as we were motivated the fact we had elections every year.

Sometimes the right decisions are not always immediately popular, nor do they deliver an immediate benefit to the public, but with longer term planning, there is a better opportunity for the elector to see that they were the correct thing to do.

Councils are politically-led entities, so politics is always going to impact on the decisions our councillors take.

I’d rather we elected a council and gave it a reasonable term to deliver on their election promises.

If they do, we can re-elect them, if they don’t, then we can vote for another party with a better set of policies.

Dan Jeffery Woolston, Southampton