Local Authority part 4- No to elected Mayors

When David Cameron suggesting at the last General Election that he

wants "every city to have its own Boris Johnson", was he really speaking for the vast majority of people? With most of the major cities throughout the world having directly elected Mayors in charge, you’d surely think it obvious that each major British city should follow suit and have its own Mayor in charge; but recent events and attitudes seem to tell a different story.

Currently, a number of English local authorities (sixteen in all including London) have had directly elected Mayors including, the local football club mascot, H'Angus the Monkey, in Hartlepool and Ray "Robocop" Mallon in Middlesbrough.

In May of this year, 10 English local authorities had referendums imposed on them by the UK Government to decide on creating the position of elected Mayor. Out of the 10, only one authority, Bristol, voted in favour of implementing the position and there was a very low voter turnout in all of the 10 authorities which further indicated a lack of enthusiasm from the electorate towards changing the current system. Hartlepools has now decided to scrap the elected mayor after a 10 year experiment and the mayor has been replaced with a traditional council system the result means Stuart Drummond, "H’Angus" who shot to fame in 2002 after surprisingly winning the position as an independent will be replaced.

In terms of a Welsh perspective, the only Welsh local authority to have a referendum for a directly elected Mayor was Ceredigion in May 2004, when the people of Ceredigion overwhelmingly rejected the proposal by almost three to one.

So despite the clear lack of enthusiasm from the majority of the electorate to see these directly elected Mayors rolled out nation-wide, what other reasons are there to be cautious of changing the status quo?

One of my main concerns about the Mayoral system relates to concentrating too much power in the hands of one individual, which effectively gives that individual ultimate say over the decision making process. This is also counter to the Welsh tradition of creating committees to decide issues and a strong aversion to giving power to one individual.

Isn’t giving one person total control over these key services for four years running a huge risk?

Surely concentrating power in one person is not as effective or democratic in comparison to a governance structure where power is more widely distributed? What’s to stop an individual from making populist, but problematic and undeliverable promises?

The fact is that under the current legislation, the only way a Mayor can be removed during his or her four year term in office is by being found guilty of behaving in a corrupt manner, sectioned under the mental health Act, or by committing a criminal offence. Apart from that, the people of an area are stuck with them for a four years term.

London is different in that there are thirty two London Boroughs carrying out most of the functions of Welsh Councils. The Mayor has responsibility for only four services namely fire, police, transport London and the London development agency plus setting the London Spatial plan.

Local Authorities in Wales have responsibility for Education, Social Services, Highways, Transportation, Housing, economic development and tourism, leisure, culture, trading standards, planning, licensing and environmental health. As can be seen Local authorities are major service providers in their areas and they provide many of the key services within their area.

　

When compared to the current "Leader and Cabinet" system, which is used by the majority of local authorities in Wales, it’s clear that the status quo is more fair and democratic. For instance, the Council Leader is considered as "first among equals" with their Cabinet colleagues, who are also democratically elected Councillors.

As I can testify from my own experiences as a former Council Leader, most Cabinet meetings lead to vigorous debates where a collective decision is taken by all members of the Cabinet, and not just the Leader. Distributing power among Cabinet colleagues ensures pluralistic decision making, vested interests are also kept in check and good arguments have to be made if one view is to prevail over another. On the whole, this makes the system a more rigorous and democratic decision making process.

Plus, a Council Leader doesn’t get the legal right to continuously hold the main position throughout the tenure of an administration. They can be voted out of the position by both their Party colleagues or by the full council under a vote of no confidence, which of course requires a majority of votes in full council. However, under the Mayoral system, legislation states that only a two thirds majority vote in full council can overturn a Mayoral decision, which I believe undermines the simple "majority rule" principle along with the function of all Councilors.

I also believe that this opens the system up to accusations of a "democratic deficit", as directly elected Mayors will be more likely to be influenced by unelected and unaccountable advisors and lobbyists , which further undermines the role and position of elected Councillors.

My other criticism of the Mayoral system is that it ignores the present strengths of the current "Leader and Cabinet" system, and promotes the culture of "personalities over policies" as we have seen in Mayoral elections in England.

For instance, under the present system a Councillor interested in one day becoming Council Leader will do their "apprenticeship" as a Ward councillor; will get to know their local authority’s services and officers; will advance through their Party group through the confidence of their colleagues, and is then chosen to lead their group, confident in the fact that they have a mandate from their Party colleagues who day in, day out, are responsible for helping to deliver the services on which people rely.

Whilst an elected Mayor can hire and fire Cabinet members at will, a Council Leader has to keep the confidence of his Cabinet colleagues if he or she is to continue as Leader.

My experience is typical; when I was elected to Swansea Council back in 1989, I became Vice-chair of the Finance Committee, then onto Chair of both the Finance and Highways Maintenance Committees and then eventually, with the support and confidence of my Labour council colleagues, Leader of the Council in 1997. Within my eight years as a local Councillor, I managed to gain first-hand experience of all the major Councils services and functions, which I believed benefitted me hugely in my role as Leader.

As any individual is able to stand for the position of Mayor, I have serious concerns over a person with no local government knowledge or experience occupying a four year position with direct control over vital services that affect thousands of people each and every day. Whilst some believe there is an advantage of electing a local "businessman" as Mayor but the size and level of complexity of a council is greater than all local businesses.

One of the strongest arguments put forward in favour of elected Mayors is that they can be come focal points for their community as they become well known. I believe Leaders can be as well known as elected Mayors within their communities. Was Ken Livingstone better known when he was Mayor of London than he was as Leader of the GLC? , is the current Mayor of Liverpool better known than Derek Hatton? Is there a municipal mayor today better known than David Blunkett when he was leader of Sheffield?

It seems to me that, especially in recently years, the British political system has become more obsessed with the world of American politics, where the likes of directly elected Mayors are the norm and personality over policies takes focus in elections. Just because something works well in one county doesn’t mean that it would work well here in Wales, and from my experience, the politics of governments and local authorities is far too complex for us to put our entire faith in just one individual.

At a time when people throughout Wales are concerned about the quality, reliability and sustainability of local services delivered by local councils, I seriously doubt that local authority governance change is high on their list of priorities.

There are many problems and challenges facing local government and the creation of elected Mayors will not solve any of them and it seems to me that directly elected Mayors are nothing more than expensive "white elephants" that achieve little more than can already be achieved by the current structure, which is why I oppose them.