Fact-checking whether Bristol can scrap the role of directly elected mayor

1. The Bristol electorate will decide if we keep the mayoral model, not any single politician

Bristol’s decision to move to a directly elected mayor was made via a referendum. As a result, any decision to move away from a directly elected mayoral system must also be made via a referendum.

“Authorities which have changed their governance arrangements as a result of a referendum can only make a further change following a further referendum.” ( House of Commons Library Briefing Paper 05000 “Directly Elected Mayors” referencing Local Government Act 2000 s9M (2) (b), inserted by schedule 2 of the Localism Act 2011)

This is different from certain other local authorities which have an elected mayor. For example, because Liverpool City Council resolved by a vote of full council to move to a directly elected mayor, Liverpool can, if it so chooses, move to a different system simply by holding another vote of full council.

“In order for Liverpool City Council to change its form of governance, Full Council would need to pass a resolution to that effect… there is no legislative requirement on the City Council to undertake public consultation or hold a referendum on any change to governance arrangements” Report to Liverpool full council, September 4 2019

In contrast, Bristol would need to hold a referendum, the results of which would be binding.

2. Whoever is mayor can’t make the change, nor can they stop it

“A mayor cannot themselves either unilaterally decide on abolition, or veto a proposal to abolish their post.” (House of Commons Library Briefing Paper 05000 “Directly Elected Mayors”)

Whoever is directly elected mayor cannot force through a change to the current system of governance nor can they stop it. Only a referendum of the Bristol electorate can change the type of governance system under which Bristol City Council currently operates.

Who remembers Barbara Janke? She was leader of Bristol City Council for much of the period between 2003 and 2012 when George Ferguson became Bristol’s first elected mayor – photo: Liberal Democrats

3. There are three ways to call a referendum, and none of them rely on whoever is directly elected mayor to agree. Nor can the directly elected mayor prevent a referendum being called

“Under the 2000 Act, any local authority wishing to establish a mayoralty required a ‘yes’ vote in a local referendum. The 2007 Act changed this, permitting local authorities to adopt a mayor by resolution. However, an authority can still choose to hold a referendum on the issue.

Alternatively, authorities can be obliged to hold a mayoral referendum if 5% or more of the local electorate sign a petition demanding one. The Government may also compel an authority to hold a referendum. The result of a mayoral referendum is binding on a local authority.” (House of Commons Library Briefing Paper 05000 “Directly Elected Mayors”)

Thus the three options are:

• Central government can compel the council to hold a referendum

This was what happened with the original referendum in 2012 when Bristol and several other cities were compelled by the coalition government to hold a referendum on whether to move to a directly elected mayor model. Bristol was the only city to vote yes in its resulting referendum, with all the other cities voting no. Meanwhile, as mentioned above, Liverpool bypassed a referendum altogether by voting to adopt a mayoral system via full council. However, there is no indication that the current government has any intention of compelling Bristol to have another referendum in the foreseeable future.

• Full council can hold a vote to call for a referendum.

Although full council cannot vote to change to a different governance system itself, it can vote to call a referendum of the Bristol electorate on whether to change the governance system. This is subject to a moratorium of ten years from the previous referendum (which means that a second referendum can’t take place until May 3 2022), but apart from that caveat any elected councillor can propose a motion to full council asking for it to call a referendum on a change of governance, and any group of five councillors can call an extraordinary full council to do the same thing.

• A petition signed by a minimum of five per cent of the electorate can trigger a referendum

To facilitate this, each local authority must, within 14 days of February 15 every year, publish a statutory notice of the number of valid signatures (the verification number) required to meet the five per cent threshold for the year beginning April 1, unless – like Bristol – the 12-month period concerned is within the ten-year moratorium period for a referendum.

The signatures on the petition must be collected over a maximum period of 12 months. Each signature must be dated; any signature which is over 12 months old is not counted when determining whether the verification number has been met. In addition, each and every page of the petition needs to state the name of the local authority to whom it is addressed, and the constitutional change the referendum is seeking.

If a petition fails to reach the required number of signatures, it can be amalgamated with a later petition asking for the same change of governance – bearing in mind that any signatures that are over 12 months old will not be counted.

For example, Bath & North East Somerset received a petition to change to a directly elected mayor dated May 13 2015. The five per cent threshold was 6,437 signatures but although 7,280 names were on the petition, only 5,039 entries matched the electoral register and were thus declared valid and thus the petition failed to meet the verification number. However, this petition was amalgamated with a second petition dated August 7 2015 and the council were able to validate 6,818 of the 9,607 total signatures and a referendum was held the following March. As before, the referendum itself cannot take place until 10 years have passed since the previous referendum so, again, this means May 3 2022 is the first day such a referendum can take place.

One of Bristol’s longest serving councillors, Helen Holland was leader of the city council from 2007 to 2009. This Evening Post photo in her office is from 1997 when money was secured from the Heritage Lottery Fund to remove the dual carriageway through Queen Square – photo: Helen Holland

4. The petition must state the governance model that will replace how the council is currently run

Legislation in the form of The Local Authorities (Referendums)(Petitions)(England) Regulations 2011 sets out the wording that needs to be on a petition for it to be valid.

“We, the undersigned, being local government electors for the area of [insert name of local authority], to whom this petition is addressed, seek a referendum on whether the council should be run in a different way by *(a mayor who is elected by voters for the area which the council serves) **(a leader who is an elected councillor chosen by a vote of the other elected councillors) ***(one or more committees made up of elected councillors).”

Because Bristol City Council is already currently run by “a mayor who is elected by voters for the area which the council serves” this means the two valid petition statements for Bristol are either:

“We, the undersigned, being local government electors for the area of Bristol City Council, to whom this petition is addressed, seek a referendum on whether the council should be run in a different way by a leader who is an elected councillor chosen by a vote of the other elected councillors.”

or

“We, the undersigned, being local government electors for the area of Bristol City Council, to whom this petition is addressed, seek a referendum on whether the council should be run in a different way by one or more committees made up of elected councillors.”

Any petition that does not use the appropriate wording may be deemed to be an invalid petition and rejected.

5. Any referendum must offer a choice between the mayor model and one other form of governance

This is because any referendum must offer a binary choice, not multiple options. One of the two options must be the current form of governance (in Bristol’s case, of course, this is the directly elected mayor model).

In England there are, in effect, three potential forms of governance that are currently valid to be included as an option on a referendum for a change of governance.

“A directly elected mayor and a cabinet is one of three different ‘governance arrangements’ or ‘political management arrangements’ available to local authorities: the others are a leader and cabinet, and the ‘committee system’, where decisions are made by policy committees and approved by full council.” (House of Commons Library Briefing Paper 05000 “Directly Elected Mayors”)

A referendum must therefore offer a binary choice between two of these three different systems (and hence why a petition for a referendum also needs to be clear about what form of governance it is proposing to change to).

In Bristol’s case that means offering a choice between:

a) the mayor and cabinet model (this is how the council is run now)

and one of either
b) the leader and cabinet model
c) the committee model

Each of these last two would be a change to the way the council is run now.

NB There is an option for a fourth model which may be an hybrid or variation on any of the three preferred models, but this must be approved as a valid model by the Secretary of State beforehand. To date, no local authority has proposed a fourth model of governance for Secretary of State approval and thus none are available as a valid model to include in a referendum).

6. If a referendum is held, the outcome is binding on Bristol City Council

If the result of a referendum held under Part 2 of these Regulations is to approve the proposals that were the subject of the referendum the authority shall implement the proposals that were the subject of the referendum (The Local Authorities (Referendums)(Petitions)(England) Regulations 2011)

This means that if the referendum returned a majority in favour of a change in the governance model then the authority must implement that change. Further legislation sets out conditions for when the new form of governance will take effect. In Bristol’s case this will most likely be for the planned 2024 local elections.

Dr Caroline Gooch is running as the Lib Dem candidate in the Bristol mayoral elections 2021, committed to scrapping the position of elected mayor. The Lib Dems have not confirmed whether Gooch is also standing as a candidate for Westbury-on-Trym & Henleaze ward as well as running for mayor – photo: Lib Dems

7. There can only be one referendum in ten years

Time limit for holding further referendum
(1)Section 45 of the Local Government Act 2000 (c. 22) (provision with respect to referendums) is amended as follows.
(2)For subsection (1) substitute—
“(1)A local authority—
(a)in England may not hold more than one referendum in any period of ten years;
(b)in Wales may not hold more than one referendum in any period of five years.”
F1(3). . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
(4)Section 45 as amended by subsection (1) applies to referendums held before, and referendums held after, this section comes into force. (Local Government and Public Involvement in Health Act 2007, section 69)

In other words, if a referendum is held in 2022, whatever the outcome, another referendum to change how Bristol is run cannot be held until 2032.

8. There has been almost no discussion of the different types of governance model available to Bristol, nor the variations available within the broad models named

Instead the focus has been almost entirely on what some people want to get rid of – namely, the directly elected mayor – rather than what to replace it with. In many ways this repeats what happened in 2012 where the arguments focused almost entirely on the comparative “costs” of the mayoral model rather than the merits or otherwise of different systems as a governance model.

In contrast, Liverpool City Council has held at least two meetings of full council, one in 2019 and another one this month, both called by the opposition parties, to discuss the options available whilst, in Tower Hamlets, the ruling administration produced a detail report which fed into an extraordinary full council meeting held to discuss what governance model might be best for governing Tower Hamlets.

In addition, in November 2020, the Centre for Governance and Scrutiny published a comprehensive as possible a list of examples of English councils changing their governance arrangements, with links and additional detail of the discussions held where possible.

Meanwhile, in Bristol, almost nothing has been done by any party to facilitate discussion of what form of governance might best serve our city in the years to come.

13 candidates stood for Bristol mayor in 2016 – photo: Joanna Booth

Main photo: Bristol24/7

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