Your say / Bristol Mayoral Elections 2021
‘It’s time to scrap the mayor, and we have a chance to do it’
I’ve been asked many times “why are you running for a position you want to scrap?” The answer is simple. The post of the mayor of Bristol has become untenable.
The mayoral system provides one individual with excessive and unnecessary power, and we have seen the mayor’s utter lack of transparency and accountability as a result.
The disaster of Bristol Energy is a prime example. With the mayor’s ability to overrule a majority council decision and exercise ultimate authority, the voices of our councillors, elected by their residents and who know their areas best, are left silenced and dismissed.
is needed now More than ever
This is utterly unacceptable in a liberal democracy.
Former Labour councillors have spoken out against the mayoral system with former cabinet member Paul Smith saying that backbench councillors are “window dressing”, and former councillor Harriet Bradley noting that the system has “serious flaws”.
A damning statement by Jo Sergeant, formerly a Labour councillor but now an independent following her resignation from the party, described her experience as follows:
“Basic norms of democracy and accountability are being ignored by the current leadership. Overall, the result is that it is impossible for Labour councillors to constructively engage with the mayor and his team, and to hold him to account between elections.”
…………………………………
Read more: Former Labour councillor pens stinging resignation letter
…………………………………
Like us, Jo said that she “will be campaigning to replace the mayoral system with a system that enables true democracy and accountability”.
I and my Liberal Democrat colleagues believe that the mayoral system is failing the people of Bristol. On Tuesday, March 16, the Liberal Democrats are putting forward a motion to council calling for a referendum in 2022 on Bristol City Council’s governance arrangements.
This motion, if successful, will give you the choice to scrap the mayor, and put an end to the democratic failure in our city. By 2022, we will have had ten years of the mayoral experiment, and you deserve the right to say that enough is enough.
We want to take power away from an unaccountable mayor, and put it in the hands of your local councillor. Through the leader and cabinet model, which we are presenting in our motion to full council, local democracy would be restored in the city. The council leader would be accountable to the council and unable to overrule majority decisions. Under this system, we can put power back in the hands of our councillors, and by extent – you.
For the strategic aspects within the city, and fulfilling the ambassadorial role for the area, we have the West of England mayor. While the incumbent regional mayor has been invisible, the elections this May present us with a real opportunity to elect someone who will be ambitious and invest in our area: Stephen Williams.
The narrower, but more strategic, remit of the West of England mayor can deliver for our city in a way that does not involve the exercise of what appears to be autocratic power.
Even if we are successful in our campaign to scrap the mayor, the next Bristol mayor will remain in the position until 2024. If I am elected, I will not exercise absolute power or diminish other voices for my own gain, but instead, put our local community at the heart of city governance. I will devolve power, end the secrecy, consult with councillors, and work side by side with our neighbours. I pledge to never overrule a majority council decision.
I believe in local democracy and I am invested in the people of Bristol. Unlike the Labour mayor, I want to share power, not keep it all to myself. Every individual in the city deserves the opportunity to have their voices heard, their interests represented, and their needs addressed.
Let’s put power back into the hands of the city, and you, its people. It’s time to scrap the mayor.
Dr Caroline Gooch is the Lib Dem Bristol mayoral candidate
Read more: ‘We have too many unaccountable mayors with too many egos’
Our top newsletters emailed directly to you
