Oswestry Liberal Democrats

Telford & Wrekin Council consults on Elected Mayor or Strong Leader; vote now

Telford & Wrekin Council is reviewing its existing executive arrangements following legislation passed by the Government. The legislation requires the Council to change its executive decision making process to one of two leadership options, namely Strong Leader or Elected Mayor. The Council would like to find out your views on the two options. You must vote by August 31st.

Background to the review, from the T&W Council website:

Under the existing leadership arrangements, Telford & Wrekin Council has a Cabinet of seven Councillors which is chaired by the Leader of the Council.

Members of the Cabinet are appointed by the Leader at the start of each Council year beginning in May. The Cabinet is formed by the majority party and has a wide range of executive responsibilities, including the power to determine all proposals, within existing policy, which require member approval, and carry out all functions that are not otherwise reserved to the Council, its Committees or delegated to Officers.

New legislation has been introduced by the Government which requires any Council which currently operates executive arrangements to adopt one of two options.

The Council is seeking, through this consultation, the views of the community, stakeholders, partners, Parish Councils, political parties and the Chamber of Commerce in order to inform a decision on which of the two options to adopt.

That decision will be made by a Special Meeting of the Full Council to be held later this year.

Under the new legislation, the Council can opt for one of two models:

• Strong Leader and Executive Cabinet. This comprises a Councillor elected as Leader by the Council for a four year term, and two or more Councillors appointed to the Cabinet by the Leader. The Council would still have the power to remove the Leader from office.
• Directly Elected Mayor and Cabinet. This option comprises a directly elected Mayor for a four year term who appoints two or more Councillors to the Cabinet. The Elected Mayor could not be removed from office by the Council.

Differences between the two options

In each case, the Leader/Mayor would hold responsibility for all executive functions. He/she would appoint Councillors to a Cabinet and delegate decision making powers to individual Councillors and Officers. The Council as a whole would continue to approve the annual budget, key Council policies and set council tax levels.

The key difference is how they are appointed and removed from office. The directly elected Mayor is not a Councillor, but is chosen in a separate election and cannot be removed by the Council. The Strong Leader would be an elected Councillor, elected as Leader by the Council. The Council would also retain powers to remove the Strong Leader from office.

The arrangements for decision making in relation to regulatory and governance functions (e.g. licensing, planning, electoral matters and staff appointments) are not the responsibility of the Cabinet and will remain unchanged.

Under the Strong Leader model there would be no change to the position and role of the Mayor. A Civic Mayor would still be elected from among the members of the Council each year at the annual meeting.

If an Executive Mayor was directly elected, the responsibilities of a Civic Mayor would be undertaken by a Council Chairman.

If the Council was minded to adopt the Directly Elected Mayor model it could choose to hold a referendum. All local electors would then have a chance of saying if they wanted this model or not.

The Council is only obliged to hold such a referendum if a petition signed by over 5% of the Borough's electors is received. If a referendum is held the Council must abide by the voters' decision (even if there is a low turn-out).

The Council cannot hold a referendum if it is minded to adopt the Strong Leader model as there is no legal basis for holding such a poll.

Are there extra costs?

The Strong Leader model would cost no more than the current arrangements.

There would be extra costs if there was a Directly elected Mayor:

• If the Council decides that a referendum should be held then it is likely that the costs of holding the poll would run to about £100,000. The poll would have to be run in the same way that local or parliamentary elections are conducted with poll cards being issued, polling stations set up and electors allowed to vote by post if they have chosen this method of voting.
• Every 4 years an election would be held for the Mayor. Although this would be held at the same time as the election of Councillors, there would be some additional costs specific to the Mayoral election. These would be between £20,000 and £35,000 depending on the extent to which the Council agrees to fund the leaflet which has to be sent to all electors giving details of Mayoral candidates.
• There will be an annual on-going increase in allowances for the Directly Elected Mayor and his/her deputy and a potential increase in administrative costs of support and advice to an independently mandated Mayor (prudent estimate £50,000).

Have your say:

The Council must opt for one of the above models by December 2010, for implementation after the elections in May 2011. We are seeking feedback from residents and interested parties on the model you would prefer to see.

You can vote on line using our online Consultation Response Form at http://www.telford.gov.uk/EGAconsultation/.

Please note that the consultation period will expire on Tuesday 31st August 2010.

NB Information retrieved from T&W website as of 15/08/10

Related Links

• T&W Consultation on new Executive Arrangements
• TWC Executive arrangements documents and related reports