We need chance to choose democratic future

This comment article is written by Gary Hopkins, Liberal Democrat group leader at Bristol City Council and councillor for Knowle ward

At full council later this evening we will be asking the mayor George Ferguson to support our motion on giving Bristol’s residents the power to choose your city’s future governance arrangements.

Our petition has cross-party support and reads: “We call on you (the Secretary of State for Local Government) to grant the citizens of the City and County of Bristol the right to demand a local referendum on whether to retain or abolish the post of elected mayor.”

To date, thousands of citizens have signed our petition (both online and on paper). Many have now woken up to the consequences of the mayoral system of local government and want to have their say, having seen how it works in practice.

Devolution momentum

Devolution to English regions and cities is a debate which is gaining momentum after the promises made in the Scottish independence referendum. Yet the consequence of the Localism Act 2011 is that Bristol is the only city with a mayoral system of governance which cannot change this system without permission from the government. This inflexibility could be an obstacle to exploring new opportunities in local government and any further devolution of powers to the city.

The promise of devolved powers to the Greater Manchester area means the possibility of meaningful devolution in the South West and Bristol has at last become an achievable reality. The West of England Partnership comprises the four unitary local authorities of Bristol, Bath and North East Somerset, North Somerset and South Gloucestershire.

The Liberal Democrats in all four authorities have written a joint letter to the Deputy Prime Minister Nick Clegg to explain that we all support the transfer of powers to local areas and have given him a wide list of devolved responsibilities we would be able to take on. These include:

• Complete responsibility for all business rates;

• The ability to raise new tax such as a hotel bedroom/tourist tax;

• The responsibility for major highway infrastructure projects;

• The transfer completely of the skills and employment agenda; and

• The willingness to work with the Government to strengthen our local governance structures.

Devolution has proved popular where it has been introduced. However, meaningful devolution is not synonymous with the need for city or metro mayors. Metro-mayors and combined authorities would add an extra layer of bureaucracy, cost taxpayers’ more money and unnecessarily impinge on each authority’s independence to govern in its residents’ interests. Tellingly, the people of Manchester voted against having a directly elected mayor in 2012 but will now have one imposed on them.

Instead of imposing mayors that have already been rejected by voters, we need to focus on the democratic structures we already have in place across the region. Yet our current mayor is oblivious to the fact that cooperation between the other three West of England local authorities was working effectively before he took office.

Uncooperative

We have worked together and successfully increased the funding our city has received from government, such as via the City Deal, which in turn has helped to foster positive partnerships across parties and across the region. Any fall in cooperation that the mayor speaks about stems from over two years of him talking at the other local authorities, rather than with them. Indeed, the other three local authorities asked whether our mayor would want to sign a joint statement on devolution but he refused, choosing silence over cooperation.

Devolution of powers must therefore include an agreement that it shall be for local people and communities to decide their form of democratic leadership without having a specific model imposed on them (either via directly elected city or metro mayors) as the price for such powers.

In Bristol we have a political system which has vested all executive power in one individual. But Bristol’s residents do not have the same rights as citizens in all other areas of England that have elected mayors to abandon this system of governance if they feel it is not working. This is despite the fact we know that even the mayor supports our motion.

Right to choose

When he was asked about the petition at full council by both Liberal Democrat and Conservative councillors on November 11 he responded: “I absolutely support people’s democratic right to choose… Bristol citizens should have the same rights as those in other English cities.”

My party has always believed that power should be devolved. Other parties are beginning to endorse this long-standing Liberal Democrat commitment. The period we are now entering into may be the best opportunity in our lifetimes to disperse power away from Westminster and bring it closer to the residents of Bristol.

But we must first address this unfair and unique denial of democratic rights to the people of Bristol and insist we are given the same rights as citizens in the other towns and cities that currently have elected mayors.