Directly elected mayors in England: Difference between revisions
Line 20: | Line 20: | ||
=== Opposition to directly-elected mayors === |
=== Opposition to directly-elected mayors === |
||
There has been some public backlash about perceived excessive power of directly-elected mayors. Campaigns are now under way in four of the twelve local authorities with directly-elected mayors (Doncaster, Hartlepool, and Lewisham) to hold referendums to abolish the posts,.<ref>{{cite news| url=http://www.timesonline.co.uk/article/0,,17129-2341604.html | work=The Times | location=London | title=Voters aim to throw out mayors they say are acting like dictators | first=Jill | last=Sherman | date=4 September 2006 | accessdate=1 May 2010}}</ref> |
There has been some public backlash about perceived excessive power of directly-elected mayors. There has also been some academic comment to the effect that the role "may merely attract mavericks and self-publicists."<ref name="historyandpolicy">{{cite web|url=http://www.historyandpolicy.org/papers/policy-paper-01.html|title=A central role for local government? The example of late Victorian Britain|last=Szreter|first=Simon|date=May 2002|work=History & Policy|publisher=History & Policy|language=[[English language|English]]|accessdate=9 December 2010|location=[[United Kingdom]]}}</ref> Campaigns are now under way in four of the twelve local authorities with directly-elected mayors (Doncaster, Hartlepool, and Lewisham) to hold referendums to abolish the posts,.<ref>{{cite news| url=http://www.timesonline.co.uk/article/0,,17129-2341604.html | work=The Times | location=London | title=Voters aim to throw out mayors they say are acting like dictators | first=Jill | last=Sherman | date=4 September 2006 | accessdate=1 May 2010}}</ref> |
||
In Doncaster, in March 2007, "Fair Deal" campaigners presented an 11,000-signature petition to the council calling for a new referendum. The council voted 31–27 in favour of a new referendum.<ref>{{cite web|last=Waugh |first=Rob |url=http://www.yorkshiretoday.co.uk/ViewArticle.aspx?ArticleID=2136435&SectionID=55 |title=Councillors back referendum on mayoral system - Yorkshire Post |publisher=Yorkshiretoday.co.uk |date= |accessdate=2010-08-04}}</ref> |
In Doncaster, in March 2007, "Fair Deal" campaigners presented an 11,000-signature petition to the council calling for a new referendum. The council voted 31–27 in favour of a new referendum.<ref>{{cite web|last=Waugh |first=Rob |url=http://www.yorkshiretoday.co.uk/ViewArticle.aspx?ArticleID=2136435&SectionID=55 |title=Councillors back referendum on mayoral system - Yorkshire Post |publisher=Yorkshiretoday.co.uk |date= |accessdate=2010-08-04}}</ref> |
Revision as of 13:51, 9 December 2010
This article needs to be updated.(June 2009) |
Directly elected mayors are local leaders elected by the general electorate of an area for local government, instead of being appointed by members of a local authority, which is common in the United Kingdom. The first directly elected mayor was introduced in Greater London in 2000 as part of the statutory provisions of the Greater London Authority Act 1999. Elsewhere in England and Wales, since the Local Government Act 2000, there have been a range of options for how a local council leadership can be constituted, and installing a directly elected mayor is one of these options. It is possible to introduce or remove the office of mayor in any local council, other than the Greater London Authority, by triggering a local referendum with a signed petition. There are currently twelve directly elected mayors, including the Mayor of London.
London
The Greater London Authority Act 1999 first introduced into England the principle of a directly elected Mayor of London under universal suffrage. The first election was in 2000, and former leader of the abolished Greater London Council, Ken Livingstone, won as an independent. However, the position is a strategic regional one, and quite different from that of local authority Mayors.
Mayors of local authorities
Most Mayors in the UK are ceremonial figures whose only real power is to chair sessions of their Councils. In 2000, the Labour government led by Tony Blair passed the Local Government Act 2000, which introduced the option of directly-elected mayors for local authorities in England and Wales. The Act ended the previous committee-based system, where functions were exercised by committees of the council, and produced three distinct methods of local authority administration (and the opportunity for the Government to define more by secondary legislation). All three separated the decision-making executive function from backbench councillors and created opportunities for overview and scrutiny processes.
The title Lord Mayor of the City of London refers only to the City of London within the greater city, while within Stoke-on-Trent the title Lord Mayor refers to the chair of Council and is a separate post from that of elected Mayor. It may be, however, that if other cities whose mayor has the right to bear the title Lord Mayor adopted an elected mayoral model of governance, they would grant the title of Lord Mayor to their elected mayor.
In addition to the Mayor of London, twelve councils in England now have directly-elected mayors with real powers and an advisory cabinet to assist them. The changes were encouraged by the central government but usually required local request and ratification by referendum. This system had been considered by the previous government, and former Environment Secretary Michael Heseltine had been a proponent of it.[1]
Some of the mayoral elections were initially won by independents, notably in Hartlepool, where the election was won by a man in a monkey suit on a campaign of free bananas for schools, Stuart Drummond; and in Middlesbrough, where it was won by former police officer Ray Mallon, who left the local police force to stand for election. Having receded somewhat as an issue after 2002, it has now moved up the political agenda again, following positive reports of mayors' performance under the new system and recent Labour gains in several mayoralties. In February 2006, the Labour-leaning Institute for Public Policy Research published a report calling for elected mayors in Birmingham and Manchester, which was positively received by the government, but not by the two city councils concerned.
In October 2005, Torbay elected its first elected mayor.[2]
In October 2006, the DCLG White Paper Strong and Prosperous Communities proposed that in future the requirement for a referendum to approve the establishment of an elected mayor for a council area be dropped in favour of a simple resolution of the council following community consultation. It also proposed the direct election of council cabinets where requested, and that the mayor-and-council manager system in Stoke-on-Trent be reformed into a conventional mayor-and-cabinet system, it having been the only English council to adopt that system.[3]
Opposition to directly-elected mayors
There has been some public backlash about perceived excessive power of directly-elected mayors. There has also been some academic comment to the effect that the role "may merely attract mavericks and self-publicists."[4] Campaigns are now under way in four of the twelve local authorities with directly-elected mayors (Doncaster, Hartlepool, and Lewisham) to hold referendums to abolish the posts,.[5]
In Doncaster, in March 2007, "Fair Deal" campaigners presented an 11,000-signature petition to the council calling for a new referendum. The council voted 31–27 in favour of a new referendum.[6]
In Lewisham the Bring Back Democracy campaign is calling for a new referendum, citing poor turnout and a very close result in the 2001 referendum.[7] In April 2007, Lewisham Council voted 28–24 against a motion calling for consultation over the issue.[8][9]
Voters in Stoke-on-Trent voted to remove the post of elected mayor on 23 October 2008, to be replaced with a more common system of council leader and cabinet[10]
Powers of local-authority mayors
A local-authority elected mayor has powers similar to those of the executive committee in a Leader and Cabinet model local authority. These are described as either "exclusive" powers or "co-decision" powers and are defined in the Local Government (Functions and Responsibilities) (England) Regulations 2000.[11]
Co-decision powers are those the mayor shares with the council, notably the power to make the local authority's annual budget and its policy framework documents. These are: Annual Library Plan; Best Value Performance Plan; Children's Services Plan; Community Care Plan; Community Strategy; Crime and Disorder Reduction Strategy; Early Years Development Plan; Education Development Plan; Local Development Framework; and the Youth Justice Plan. To amend or reject a mayor's proposals for any of these documents, the council must resolve to do so by a two-thirds majority. This is again based on secondary legislation, in this case the Local Government (Standing Orders) (England) Regulations 2001.[12]
Exclusive powers are less easy to define, because they consist of all the powers that are granted to a local authority by Act of Parliament except those defined either as co-decision powers or as "not to be the responsibility of an authority's executive". This latter is a limited list, including quasi-judicial decisions on planning and licensing, and certain ceremonial, employment and legal decisions.
An elected mayor (in a mayor and cabinet system) also has the power to appoint up to nine councillors as members of a cabinet and to delegate powers, either to them as individuals, or to the Mayor and Cabinet committee, or to subcommittees of the Mayor and Cabinet committee. In practice, the mayor remains personally accountable, so most mayors have chosen to delegate to a very limited extent—if at all.
Protecting the British tradition of independent public service has led to the situation where the apparent introduction of separation of powers has led only to the transfer of powers from one elected branch (the council) to another (the mayor). Local authorities in Britain remain administered by a permanent staff of chief officers led by a chief executive, who are politically neutral bureaucrats. Their powers remain unaffected by the introduction of elected mayor. Senior officers continue to be appointed by a politically-representative committee of councillors (and more junior officers by the senior officers), and the mayor may not attempt to influence the decision as to who is appointed (except within the committee as a member of the committee). To maintain the staff's professional and political independence, the mayor (or any other member of the council) may not personally direct any member of staff. Changing the direction of an authority may only be made through a formal decision-making process and then only on the basis of official reports put together by officers.
Accordingly, an elected mayor cannot really be accurately characterised as an executive mayor, as in parts of the US and certain other countries, but more as a semi-executive mayor.
List of directly-elected mayors
As of 2010[update] there were twelve directly-elected Mayors in England (including the Mayor of London). After the mayor of Bedford, Frank Branston died in office in August 2009, an election was held in October 2009 to elect a replacement.[13][14]
Location | Post | Type | Mayor | Party |
---|---|---|---|---|
Bedford | Mayor of Bedford | unitary authority | Dave Hodgson | Liberal Democrats |
Doncaster | Mayor of Doncaster | metropolitan borough | Peter Davies | English Democrats |
Hackney | Mayor of Hackney | London borough | Jules Pipe | Labour |
Hartlepool | Mayor of Hartlepool | unitary authority | Stuart Drummond | independent |
Lewisham | Mayor of Lewisham | London borough | Steve Bullock | Labour |
London | Mayor of London | English region | Boris Johnson | Conservative |
Mansfield | Mayor of Mansfield | non-metropolitan district | Tony Egginton | independent |
Middlesbrough | Mayor of Middlesbrough | unitary authority | Ray Mallon | independent |
Newham | Mayor of Newham | London borough | Robin Wales | Labour |
North Tyneside | Mayor of North Tyneside | metropolitan borough | Linda Arkley | Conservative |
Torbay | Mayor of Torbay | unitary authority | Nicholas Bye | Conservative |
Tower Hamlets | Mayor of Tower Hamlets | London borough | Lutfur Rahman | independent |
Watford | Mayor of Watford | non-metropolitan district | Dorothy Thornhill | Liberal Democrats |
Ex-mayors are:
- John Harrison North Tyneside (2005–2009)
- Chris Morgan North Tyneside (May 2002 – April 2003)
- Mike Wolfe, Stoke-on-Trent (October 2002 – May 2005)
- Ken Livingstone, London (2000–2008)
- Martin Winter, Doncaster (2002–2009)
- Frank Branston, Bedford (2002–2009)
and also
- Linda Arkley, North Tyneside (2003–2005) who was re-elected in June 2009
Mayoral referendums
To date there have been 37 referendums on whether to establish an elected mayor in English local authorities. Twelve have been passed and 25 rejected by the voters.
To cause a referendum, the normal procedure is for the council to request it, which has happened in 22 cases. In 14, the voters themselves have requested a referendum by petition and in one (Southwark) central Government forced the holding of a referendum.
"Yes" majority shown in green, "No" majority shown in red.
Local authority | Date | Yes Votes | Yes Vote % | No Votes | No Vote % | Turnout % |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Berwick-upon-Tweed | 7 June 2001 | 3,617 | 26 | 10,212 | 74 | 64 |
Cheltenham | 28 June 2001 | 8,083 | 33 | 16,602 | 67 | 32 |
Gloucester | 28 June 2001 | 7,731 | 32 | 16,317 | 68 | 31 |
Watford | 12 July 2001 | 7,636 | 52 | 7,140 | 48 | 25 |
Doncaster | 20 September 2001 | 35,453 | 65 | 19,398 | 35 | 25 |
Kirklees | 4 October 2001 | 10,169 | 27 | 27,977 | 73 | 13 |
Sunderland | 11 October 2001 | 9,375 | 43 | 12,209 | 57 | 10 |
Brighton & Hove | 18 October 2001 | 22,724 | 38 | 37,214 | 62 | 32 |
Hartlepool | 18 October 2001 | 10,667 | 51 | 10,294 | 49 | 34 |
Lewisham | 18 October 2001 | 16,822 | 51 | 15,914 | 49 | 18 |
Middlesbrough | 18 October 2001 | 29,067 | 84 | 5,422 | 16 | 34 |
North Tyneside | 18 October 2001 | 30,262 | 58 | 22,296 | 42 | 36 |
Sedgefield | 18 October 2001 | 10,628 | 47 | 11,869 | 53 | 33 |
Redditch | 8 November 2001 | 7,250 | 44 | 9,198 | 56 | 28 |
Durham | 20 November 2001 | 8,327 | 41 | 11,974 | 59 | 29 |
Harrow | 6 December 2001 | 17,502 | 43 | 23,554 | 57 | 26 |
Plymouth | 24 January 2002 | 29,559 | 41 | 42,811 | 59 | 40 |
Harlow | 24 January 2002 | 5,296 | 25 | 15,490 | 75 | 25 |
Newham | 31 January 2002 | 27,263 | 68 | 12,687 | 32 | 26 |
Southwark | 31 January 2002 | 6,054 | 31 | 13,217 | 69 | 11 |
West Devon | 31 January 2002 | 3,555 | 23 | 12,190 | 77 | 42 |
Shepway | 31 January 2002 | 11,357 | 44 | 14,438 | 56 | 36 |
Bedford | 21 February 2002 | 11,316 | 67 | 5,537 | 33 | 16 |
Hackney | 2 May 2002 | 24,697 | 59 | 10,547 | 41 | 32 |
Mansfield | 2 May 2002 | 8,973 | 55 | 7,350 | 45 | 21 |
Newcastle-under-Lyme | 2 May 2002 | 12,912 | 44 | 16,468 | 56 | 31.5 |
Oxford | 2 May 2002 | 14,692 | 44 | 18,686 | 56 | 34 |
Stoke on Trent | 2 May 2002 | 28,601 | 58 | 20,578 | 42 | 27 |
Corby | 1 October 2002 | 5,351 | 46 | 6239 | 54 | 31 |
Ealing | 12 December 2002 | 9,454 | 45 | 11,655 | 55 | 10 |
Ceredigion | 20 May 2004 | 5,308 | 27 | 14,013 | 73 | 36 |
Isle of Wight | 5 May 2005 | 28,786 | 43.7 | 37,097 | 56.3 | 60.4 |
Fenland | 14 July 2005 | 5,509 | 24.2 | 17,296 | 75.8 | 33.6 |
Torbay | 14 July 2005 | 18,074 | 55.2 | 14,682 | 44.8 | 32.1 |
Crewe and Nantwich | 4 May 2006 | 11,808 | 38.2 | 18,768 | 60.8 | 35.3 |
Darlington | 27 September 2007 | 7,981 | 41.6 | 11,226 | 58.4 | 24.6 |
Bury | 3 July 2008 | 10,338 | 40.1 | 15,425 | 59.9 | 18.3 |
Tower Hamlets | 6 May 2010 | 60,758 | 60.3 | 39,857 | 39.7 | 62.1 |
Source: Electoral Commission; Ceredigion County Council; Darlington Borough Council
Referendum in existing mayoral authority
After Parliament abolished the unique Mayor and Council Manager form in the Local Government and Public Involvement in Health Act 2007, Stoke-on-Trent held a referendum on whether to move to a Mayor and Cabinet system or adopt a Leader and Cabinet system. Stoke-on-Trent became the first city to abolish an elected mayor.
Local authority | Date | Yes Votes | Yes Vote % | No Votes | No Vote % | Turnout % |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Stoke-on-Trent | 23 October 2008 | 14,592 | 41 | 21,231 | 59 | 19.23 |
Source: Birmingham Post
Mayors in the largest cities
Under the Department for Communities and Local Government 2010 Structural Reform Plan the twelve largest cities will adopt directly elected mayors, subject to confirmatory referendums and councillor scrutiny.[15] The twelve cities are:[16]
Wales and Scotland
Although Wales is included in the legislation, only one Welsh authority, Ceredigion, has held a referendum on such a proposal, which was rejected.
The Act does not apply in Scotland and the Scottish Parliament has chosen to reform local government instead by introducing the Single Transferable Vote electoral system. The Scottish Conservatives support elected mayors where there is found to be "local demand in our major towns and cities".[17] A mayor in Scotland is traditionally known as a provost.
References
- ^ Hunt, Tristram (16 May 2004). "Why cities can thank the Tories". The Guardian. London. Retrieved 1 May 2010.
- ^ "Tory elected as mayor of Torbay". BBC News. 21 October 2005. Retrieved 1 May 2010.
- ^ "Local government reform - England". City Mayors. 30 October 2006. Retrieved 4 August 2010.
- ^ Szreter, Simon (May 2002). "A central role for local government? The example of late Victorian Britain". History & Policy (in English). United Kingdom: History & Policy. Retrieved 9 December 2010.
{{cite web}}
: CS1 maint: unrecognized language (link) - ^ Sherman, Jill (4 September 2006). "Voters aim to throw out mayors they say are acting like dictators". The Times. London. Retrieved 1 May 2010.
- ^ Waugh, Rob. "Councillors back referendum on mayoral system - Yorkshire Post". Yorkshiretoday.co.uk. Retrieved 4 August 2010.
- ^ "Parallels H-Sphere". Bringbackdemocracy.org.uk. Retrieved 4 August 2010.
- ^ [1][dead link]
- ^ http://www.lewisham.labour.co.uk/ViewPage.cfm?Page=21381
- ^ "City votes to eject elected mayor". BBC News. 24 October 2008. Retrieved 4 August 2010.
- ^ "Statutory Instrument 2000 No. 2853". Opsi.gov.uk. Retrieved 4 August 2010.
- ^ "The Local Authorities (Standing Orders) (England) Regulations 2001". Opsi.gov.uk. Retrieved 4 August 2010.
- ^ "Mayor dies after heart operation". BBC News. 14 August 2009. Retrieved 4 August 2010.
- ^ "Lib Dem win in mayoral election". BBC News. 16 October 2009.
- ^ http://www.communities.gov.uk/documents/corporate/pdf/16359212.pdf
- ^ http://www.regen.net/news/ByDiscipline/Policy/1004727/Elected-mayors-imposed-12-largest-cities/
- ^ Annabel Goldie: A One-Nation party - News and Press - Scottish Conservative Party[dead link]
External links