City Council says no to elected Mayor...again

1.03.26am GMT Fri 8th Dec 2006

In the light of the newly published Local Government White Paper, the Liberal Democrats have persuaded the City Council to rule out, once and for all, an elected mayor for the city.

The motion received cross party support and echoed a similar motion tabled by Conservative Councillors.

In the motion tabled to the December City Council meeting, the Lib Dems sought the Council to re-affirm its position against an elected mayor, and instead favoured the existing modernised committee system.

The Lib Dems want to see the Council launch a lobbying campaign to try and save its existing governance arrangements.

Motion:

Local Government White Paper

This Council notes the publication of the 'Local Government White Paper, Strong and Prosperous Communities'.

This Council notes with concern that the White Paper states that councils, other than "those who, by reason of their small size",who operate the modernised committee system, will be required to change to one of the following three models:

· Directly elected mayors;

· Directly elected executives and

· Leaders elected for four year terms by councillors.

In noting the importance of open and effective local governance to the residents of Brighton & Hove, this Council re-affirms its position following the public referendum against the imposition of a directly elected mayor.

This Council welcomes the overall success of the committee system, as providing a relatively open and inclusive process of decision-making, and favours this model to the other proposed structures, namely directly elected executives or leaders elected for four year terms.

Furthermore, it requests the Chief Executive to make urgent representations to the Secretary of State, the city's three MPs and to the Conservative and Liberal Democrat Local Government Spokespeople in the House of Commons to urge for the retention of the committee system and to request that the Secretary State allows the modernised committee system to remain in place for the City Council.

Proposed: Cllr David Watkins

Seconded: Cllr Paul Elgood

Cllr Dawn Davidson