BOURNEMOUTH council has backed the first past the post voting system in a public challenge.

Resident Susan Chapman asked councillors at a full council meeting whether they would support some form of proportional representation (PR), following the #Hungry4Democracy 24 hour hunger strike in February.

She said: "On February 6 this year, 100 years since women first won the vote, hundreds fasted for voting justice. #Hungry4Democracy showed how unfair is our first past the post system which benefits Labour in the North and Tories in the South, leaving many people aggrieved at lack of representation.

"Proportional representation would be a more equitable system for all.

"Locally, many have felt upset to have been excluded from decision making, some of it behind closed doors, as has been said in the Echo.

"As the conurbation changes please will Bournemouth encourage goodwill and participation by supporting a fairer voting system?"

In response, Cllr Philip Broadhead said the borough has "no power" to change the voting system, but added that "there is the separate issue on whether it would be wise to do so if we could".

Conservative Cllr Broadhead is cabinet member for local government reorganisation and the process of merging Bournemouth, Christchurch and Poole councils to form one new unitary for the conurbation.

Former Liberal Democrat MP for Mid Dorset and North Poole Annette Brooke has written to the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government calling for a PR-based system to be used to elect councillors to the new body.

Cllr Broadhead, it appears from the meeting, would have been unimpressed by this suggestion. He said: "Only a few years ago in 2011, the public had their say in the national referendum on proportional representation in our voting system.

"The result was, to put it mildly, definitive. Almost 68 percent of voters rejected the idea and opted to retain the first past the post system.

"Furthermore, I believe there is a clear argument, particularly in local government, about demonstrating to residents the direct accountability of their elected officials.

"Ms Chapman talks about a more 'equitable system', but nearly every example of a proportionally representative voting system dictates a 'pool' of elected officials across an authority, rather than electing members to individual wards.

"As a proud councillor for Talbot and Branksome Woods, not only am I rightly interested in taking an active interest in protecting my residents’ concerns in my area, but equally I am directly accountable as they elected me as their ward councillor."

He added: "I struggle to comprehend how certain modern political parties, in a quest to further their own political advantage, would seek to undermine the direct accountability of elected officials to their electorate."