←
→

Should Sheffield have an Elected Mayor?

Posted: February 20, 2012 | Author: | Filed under: Uncategorized | Tags: , , , | 5 Comments »

On May 3rd this year Sheffield, along with 9 other English cities (including Wakefield, Manchester and Leeds), will hold a referendum on whether to have an Elected Mayor. This would mean moving away from the current Cabinet-based council system to an Executive model with council powers concentrated into a single individual elected by voters across the city. If the referendum is successful then elections will be held in November. The referendums were initiated by the recent passing of the Localism Act in November 2011.

At yesterday’s meeting of the Steering Group we discussed the mayoral referendum and whether to support, oppose or remain neutral on the issue. It was noted that so far there had been little public information and discussion of the relative merits of either side. It was eventually agreed that Sheffield for Democracy would be a neutral party in the debate and would seek to provide a platform for discussion and to encourage participation in the elections to ensure the legitimacy of the result.

We are therefore inviting guest blogpost contributions to the debate to put forward the arguments in favour or against changing to an elected mayoral system, or even to provide a neutral view. Contributions are welcome from supporters of any political parties or none or any charity or organisation concerned with local democracy. For fairness we ask that contributions are limited to around 500 words (a single side of A4). Please email your contributions to info@sheffieldfordemocracy.org.uk.

  • http://www.facebook.com/people/Ian-James-Kay/632447038 Ian James Kay

    Who gets to vote? Is it just people who live in the Sheffield council area?

    • Richard Shaw

      Hello Ian, I believe it will be anyone who is registered to vote in the Sheffield City Council area. This will probably include students who are registered to vote both at university and at their home address.

  • Pingback: » Report from Steering Group meeting of 19 February 2012. Sheffield for Democracy

  • Botanic88

    Looking at the ‘Use Your Vote’ leaflet it appears that the only difference between the two options is that ordinary voters elect a mayor who cannot be removed for 4 years. Whereas councillors elect a Leader who they can remove by a vote of confidence.

    Apart from this, the rules about cabinets, etc appear to be identical. Are we missing something?

    • Richard Shaw

      Hello, Yes the rules regarding the formation of cabinets appear to be the same. The difference between the two systems seems to be whether you want the person in charge of the council to be like a President or like a Prime Minister.

      Currently the Leader is an elected Councillor who represents constituents in their ward and is chosen by an assembly of fellow councillors. They will generally be someone who has lots of Council experience and who has sufficient leadership qualities to gain the support of their peers. This is similar to the Prime Minister who is both a constituency MP and the leader of the government. In this model council power ultimately resides with the assembly of elected councillors who make decisions and choose their leader.

      An elected Mayor would not necessarily already be an elected Councillor or even be a member of a political party – there have already been several independent elected mayors around the country. They may or may not have experience of running a council. They and the people they appoint to their cabinet are responsible for making decisions – most power is moved from the assembly of elected councillors to the Mayor and his Cabinet. This is similar to a Presidential model of government where the President only has to defer to the assembly on certain decisions but has quite a lot of freedom to do as they want.

      Both models have pros and cons. If you have a council in which their is an democratically unhealthy culture or even corruption then having an elected Mayor who bypasses the usual political party power structures, sort things out and help restore trust in the council could be a good thing. However it does centralise a lot of power in fewer individuals in comparison to the Leader model where power resides with the elected councillors and their electors.

      I believe decision making should be as decentralised as possible and that having power shared among the councillors is ultimately more democratic than concentrating it in a few cabinet members. I think that an elected mayor would be great for places which have had previous problems with corruption or poor decision making but I don’t think Sheffield is one of those places.

←
→