North Somerset Council has called for a change in the voting system used for parliamentary elections.

The authority believes the current First Past the Post method does not offer a fair representation of how voters think and should be replaced with Proportional Representation.

A motion was passed by the council calling for the Government to change voting systems in future elections.

Cllr Catherine Gibbons welcomed the decision - citing it as an important step to revamp the UK's "outdated" voting system.

Cllr Gibbons said: "I’m so pleased that North Somerset Council passed this motion, as we believe there needs to be a better and fairer voting system.

"It is an important step we have made in giving the council a mandate to write to the government and call for change to our outdated electoral system, enabling Proportional Representation to be used in UK national elections and local elections in England."

The First Past the Post voting method divides the UK up into 650 constituencies, each electing an MP, and 8,694 electoral wards/divisions, each electing a council.

It is a fast and effective way of collecting votes though has been criticised for electing representatives who get more votes than the candidates they face - rendering the sie of the winning margin irrelevant.

At the last North Somerset Council election, under First Past the Post, as many Conservative councillors were elected at the last election than Independents, although they received nearly twice as many votes.

Similarly, while Labour received 704 more votes than the Liberal Democrats, six Labour councillors were elected to the Lib Dems’ 11.

Cllr Gibbons added: "We want to see an end to powerful majority governments elected with a minority of the votes.

"I look forward to seeing more councils support Proportional Representation."

Proportional Representation allocates electoral seats and wards in proportion to the number of votes for each party - the public is not voting for a specific candidate.

This means if a party received 40 per cent of the votes, it would be given 40 per cent of the seats available.

North Somerset Council is one of several to have passed motions calling for voting reform, as part of ‘Councils for PR’, an initiative by campaign groups Make Votes Matter and Get PR Done.

To read the full motion click here

The council will now wait for a response from the government.