Final Week of Voting in the Canal & River Trust Council Elections

(posted by Alan)

It is the final week for voting in the CaRT Council elections. Voting closes at 12 pm on Friday 9th, if you are voting by Internet, but as they have only provided a second class envelope for postal votes, I'd suggest they need to be sent within the next couple of days. (Particularly given how long the postal packs took to get to some of us!).

I know many will have cast their vote already. Also some, I'm sure, think it will make no difference to anything. Having heard two of the trustees, (John Dodwell and Jane Cotton), speak yesterday, they emphasised the vital role that the Council will play. Effectively the trustees are ultimately answerable to Council, who can veto poor decisions, and even dismiss unsatisfactory trustees.

So it really does matter that you elect members to the four "private boater" places on Council that you feel will be able to best represent you as a boat owner for the next four years - quite possibly the most important for this new charity.

A reminder too that casting any number of preference votes can never disadvantage any candidate that you have placed higher in your preference list. Your transferable vote will only transfer to one of your lower preferences if a higher preference doesn't need it (because they have enough already), or cannot use it, (because even with all available votes they can never get enough). The more choices you place in order, the less chance that your vote is wasted. There is no logical reason to stop your ranking after 4 choices, and doing so may mean that none of your first 4 choices can actually benefit from it, but the person who would have been your fifth choice may have lost a vital vote from you.

Please vote if you are eligible to do so. This is important to the future of boats and boating on our waterways.