THE WAY district council elections are held in North Hertfordshire is to remain the same after councillors voted against holding just one election every four years. Currently a third of North Hertfordshire District Council s councillors are elected in eac

THE WAY district council elections are held in North Hertfordshire is to remain the same after councillors voted against holding just one election every four years.

Currently a third of North Hertfordshire District Council's councillors are elected in each of three consecutive years, with county council elections normally taking place in the fourth year.

However, an extraordinary meeting of the council took place last week in which a free vote was held to decide whether to scrap the current system and have just one election every four years in which every seat is up for grabs.

For there to be a change two-thirds of councillors would have had to have voted in favour of it.

As it was 19 councillors voted for change but 24 voted to keep the status quo.

Leader of the council F John Smith voted against changing the system because he thought "it wasn't necessary".

"This could change in the future but if there is a change then reversing that decision in the future would be extremely unlikely.

"Likewise it may well be brought up again for discussion."

A council spokesman said there could still be a one-off all out election next year following a recent boundary review of the area but they were still waiting for confirmation.