Cyflwynwyd yr ymateb hwn i ymgynghoriad y Pwyllgor Biliau Diwygio ar Fil Senedd Cymru (Aelodau ac Etholiadau).

This response was submitted to the Reform Bill Committee consultation on the Senedd Cymru (Members and Elections) Bill.

SCME53 Ymateb gan: | Response from: Wendy Beever
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Public Consultation on Reforming the Senedd

My views on the reform of the Senedd.

1. I am not in favour of the increasing the number of Senedd members to 96.

We are in the midst of a cost-of-living crisis, which is made worse in Wales by the £900m deficit in the budget. This has partly been caused by the reckless spending of money on projects which do not directly benefit the people of Wales. I do not feel that spending a minimum of an extra £17.8m per year can possibly be justified in the current economic climate when we have major problems in Wales such as the Welsh NHS and the extraordinarily high number of people who are on waiting lists for treatment, the poorly performing economy, the highest number of people unemployed, the lowest educational scores and so on.  People in Wales are suffering because of Mark Drakeford’s lack of investment in the country which he is actually meant to serve and there will be more hardship and suffering as the Welsh people have to address his £900m deficit. The country cannot afford up to £120m to implement this increase of members.

2. I am opposed to a closed list system to elect members to the Senedd.

When I am voting in an election, I consider the actual person I am voting for as well as the party they represent. Under this proposed system I could very well end up with a representative that I would not have voted for and do not want to represent me. I believe that other people vote for personalities as well as parties and we will not have the choice of our representative. Under this system we could very well end up with people who would not be nominated to stand for a constituency as they would not be successful in winning the seat but are chosen by the party with no regard to the views of the electorate.

3. Job sharing

I do not see why this should be brought in. When communicating with a Senedd member about an issue from either a group, organisation or an individual there needs to be consistency. This will not happen if people are communicating with different people each time they raise an issue or respond to a comment. Also, when job-sharing, time needs to be spent catching up on what the other person has done in your absence, and this is not always effective.

W V Beever