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show that 38 per cent of

people questionednationally want adirectly elected mayorrather than a councilleader. But a separatepoll earlier in Marchrevealed 62 per centwere unaware of theMay referendums, with90 per cent saying theyhad been given little orno information about it.As a likely result of this,during an electedmayors referendum inSalford in January, just

18.1 per cent of the171,000 eligible voterstook part.

According to SteveConnor, chief executiveof Manchester PR firmCreative Concern, there islittle appetite for the change in hishome city because it would not offerany tangible benefit. Connor recently

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E L E C T E D M A Y O R S

Theyll be dynamic, high profile leaders wholl get things done, argue

supporters of elected mayors. Theyre a solution looking for a

problem, say the critics. Either way, our cities are soon going to be

voting on whether we want them or not, reports Ryan Gallagher

Le

opportunities that theyve got.

Since the Local Government Actwas introduced by Labour in 2000,16 English towns have adoptedelected mayors, ranging from Londonto Bedford, Middlesbrough andWatford. But the current government,as part of its 2011 Localism Act,wants to expand the system across allof the countrys major cities, withMays mandatory referendums anintegral part of that process.

Im really enthusiastic about thisbecause I profoundly believe weshould be moving our country tohaving more directly elected mayorsin our big cities, prime minister

David Cameron said in a speech at10 Downing Street last week. I knowit is a big cultural change for Britain,it is a big move for us, and it isabsolutely going to be up to the

people of thosecities to make thatdecision, but Ivery much hopewe will get someyes votes acrossour country.

Thinktank theInstitute for

Government (IFG) has also backedthe push towards having moreelected mayors. It believes the changewill lead to more funding andindependence handed over to cities,with increased stability and betterleadership.

Mayors are likely to bringsignificant benefits in terms ofvisibility, stability andresponsiveness to the electorate,says Tom Gash, programme directorat the IFG. Mayors are elected everyfour years by tens of thousands oreven hundreds of thousands ofvoters. Council leaders are chosen byother councillors and can be oustedat virtually any point if they cantkeep these councillors happy.

Statistics produced by the IFG

It has been billed by some as the

most significant constitutionalchange England has faced ingenerations. Next month, areferendum will be held in ten citiesacross the country to determinewhether council leaders will bereplaced by elected mayors. It couldmean that, rather than councilspicking who is in charge, morepeople than ever before will have thechance to directly decide who theirlocal leader is. Advocates of thereform say it will bring about greaterdemocracy and more regionalcontrol but not everyone isconvinced.

Come 3 May voters in Leeds,Wakefield, Manchester, Sheffield andBradford will be among those to go tothe polls. Birmingham, Nottingham,Coventry, Bristol and Newcastle willalso vote, while Liverpool andLeicester have already chosen toswitch to the new system withoutholding a referendum. Thegovernment is keen for cities to adoptelected mayors, which it says willlead to more power devolved locally.However, critics claim they are beingpressurised into making a changethat is not necessarily a good thing.

Im sceptical about mayors, saysProfessor Alan Harding, director ofthe University of ManchestersInstitute for Political and EconomicGovernance. I think it would be acomplete and utter waste of time forManchester, which has been runperfectly effectively for donkeysyears.

There are certain places in theworld which have directly electedmayors, and I dont think you couldsay hand on heart it makes a decisivedifference to how those placesfunction. At the end of the day itsnot the position that makes thedifference its the quality of thepeople who occupy the position and

how they make use of the

VITAL STATISTICS

A report published last week by thinktank the Institute forGovernment (IFG) revealed that 38 per cent of people questionednationally want a directly elected mayor rather than a councilleader. Twenty-five per cent would prefer not to change to anelected mayor, 23 per cent did not mind either way, and 14 percent did not know.

The IFGs research, based on a survey of 2,300 adults conductedby YouGov, also revealed that just 15 per cent of people said theyknew the name of their local council leader and, of those, aroundhalf (8 per cent) could correctly name them. According to thethinktank, previous polling has shown that in places with amayor, 57 per cent of residents could name him or her.

There have been 41 referendums on whether to establish anelected mayor in English local authorities, with 14 votes in favourand 27 against. Stoke-on-Trent voted to abandon its mayor in2008, six years after introducing the system, and Doncaster,which voted for a mayor in 2001 and currently is led by EnglishDemocrat Peter Davies, is currently considering reverting back tothe council leader and cabinet model.

I think itwould be acomplete andutter waste oftime forManchester.

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authored a letter, published in theManchester Evening News and signedby academics, artists andbusinessmen, calling elected mayorsa bad deal.

For Manchester its a really badoption, Connor says, because wevegot ten local authorities, not one, andweve got Greater Manchester, whichis the scale at which our city works.

If it was one elected mayor for thewhole of Manchester that would bea different issue. But this referendumis about a mayor just for theManchester City Council area, andits crackers.

In London Boris Johnson is mayorof Greater London, which puts himin charge of all 32 of the capitalsboroughs. But Manchester is beingoffered an elected mayor who wouldonly be responsible for the city ofManchester (one borough), asopposed to Greater Manchester in itsentirety (ten boroughs).

Elected mayors should be for

larger areas like London. They

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ading lightsWHAT ARE ELECTED MAYORS?

There are elected mayors in cities acrossthe world, including New York, London,Barcelona, Chicago, Frankfurt and Sydney.Elected mayors hold varying degrees ofexecutive power and have to ensurecouncil services such as regeneration,transport and education are deliveredefficiently.

In England elected mayors have thepower to select their own cabinet whoseadvice they are able to overrule.

This differs from the status of a councilleader, who is required to develop aconsensus with his or her cabinet overany decisions.

Advocates of elected mayors say thatthey will shift power away from centralgovernment, enhance the prestige of thecountrys largest cities, provide betterlocal public services and moreaccountability.

I believe the evidence also shows thatsome forms of leadership are bettersuited than others in helping cities reach

their full potential in an increasinglycompetitive international environment,says Conservative cities minister GregClark. The worlds great cities havemayors who lead their city on theinternational stage, attracting investmentand jobs.

But critics argue elected mayors lead toa greater focus on personalities thanpolicies, will result in a kind of electeddictatorship focusing too much power inthe hands of one person, and are notproven to be a marked improvement overthe traditional leader and cabinet councilmodel.

There is nothing in this but a title, as itwere, says Professor Alan Harding,director of the University of ManchestersInstitute for Political and EconomicGovernance.

There are limited new powers orresources available to local authorities asa result of going for a directly electedmayor.

Sixty-two percent wereunaware ofthe Mayreferendumson mayors

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P O P - U P S

shouldnt be for smaller areas,Connor says. Theres no demand forit, we havent asked for it, and yet itsbeen forced on us.

Last week the BBC quoted anunnamed Downing Street advisersaying Manchester would be at acompetitive disavantage if its citizensdidnt vote yes on 3 May. InWakefield council leader Peter Boxhas accused central government of

engaging in Alice in Wonderlandpolitics for asking people to vote onsomething that they are not fullyinformed about. Meanwhile, an anti-mayors campaign group called VoteNo to a Power Freak has beenfounded by politicians inBirmingham who claim electedmayors will lead to corruption and aform of dictatorship.

Concentrating power into thehands of one individual makes iteasy for them to do things that meanother people arent consulted unless they are wealthy people orhigh up in the bureaucracy of thecouncil, says John Hemming MP, aLiberal Democrat involved with theVote No to a Power Freak campaign.It leads towards corruption, becausepower corrupts the more power yougive people the more corruptionthere is.

If you think politics should be acelebrity contest once every fouryears and otherwise people do whatthey feel like, then great vote for it.But if you think politics is aboutpolicies and trying to make a societywhere everybody is taken intoaccount then oppose it.

In Liverpool the prevailing attitudeis more positive. The citys council

decided to adopt an elected mayor

without holding a referendum afterbeing promised a 130 million citydeal funding package fromWhitehall in return, including a75 million economic developmentgrant and a low tax enterprise zone inthe north of the city.

Its time to embrace mayoralpolitics, says Liam Fogarty, a formerBBC journalist running as anindependent candidate for Liverpool

mayor. It will be different to the sortof politics that were used to, I thinkand I hope. A mayoral figureprovides clear visible leadership theres no hiding place for a mayor and I think that makes for a stronger

democracy.Among the other

candidates whowill be running formayor ofLiverpool areHerbert Howe, acelebrityhairdresser, andTony Mulhearn,

the former Militant leader who haspledged to reverse all council cutsshould he get elected. Phil Redmond,the creator of TV series Brookside,Grange Hilland Hollyoaks, finallyruled himself out of the race lastweek, after much speculation that hewould stand.

At the moment we have thiswhole kind of alphabet soup ofpeople taking important decisionsthat are not visible or held to account quangos, joint boards, partnerships,multi agency agreements, Fogartysays.

If the price of accountability is theodd eccentric, I think thats a fair

price to pay.

WHO MIGHT STAND?

If cities vote yes to adopting elected mayors in the referendumson 3 May, it is possible the following candidates will stand whenit comes to the mayoral elections scheduled for 15 November.

Leeds: Stewart Golton (Liberal Democrat) and Andrew Carter(Conservative). Labour council leader Keith Wakefield has ruledhimself out, branding elected mayors undemocratic and uttermadness.

Wakefield: Peter Box (Labour, pictured), MarkCrowther (Conservative), Arnie Craven (UKIndependence Party). Box has vowed to rundespite criticising central government for forcingthe referendum without informing voters fullyabout what powers a mayor would be given. He

told The Big Issue in The North: All I can say with certainty is thatthe present system works well and has delivered some realimprovements over the past few years.

Manchester: Sir Richard Leese (Labour), Marc Ramsbottom(Liberal Democrat).

Sheffield:Julie Dore (Labour), Shaffaq Mohammed (LiberalDemocract), Jillian Creasy (Green)..

Bradford: Ian Greenwood (Labour), Glen Miller (Conservative),Jeanette Sunderland (Liberal Democrat).

Liverpool One of the following will be voted inon 3 May because the council has bypassed thereferendum: Joe Anderson (Labour, pictured),Tony Caldeira (Conservative), John Coyne (GreenParty), Liam Fogarty (Independent), HerbertHowe (Independent), Richard Kemp (LiberalDemocrat), Steve Radford (Liberal Party), Tony Mulhearn (TradeUnionist and Socialist Coalition

Salford: Like Liverpool, already committed to a mayor.Candidates: Ian Stewart (Labour the former MP got the nod fromhis party over current council leader John Merry), Karen Garrido(Conservative), Norman Owen (Lib Dem), Michael Felse (EnglishDemocrats), Joe ONeill (Green) and Eddy OSullivan (BNP).

Mayors arelikely to bringsignificantbenefits invisibility andstability.

Fogarty: theres no hiding place for a mayor

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