‘We should grasp the opportunity for a city-wide debate to revitalise local democracy’

As we head towards the referendum to decide the future governance arrangements for Bristol City Council, there are concerns that the option of a committee system has not been explained to the electorate.

Bristol City Council is required to make details available to the public and, with some searching, a document can be found on the council’s website, which also states that copies are available for inspection by members of the public at City Hall between 9am and 5pm Monday to Friday.

Given the importance of the decision to be made on May 5, details of the committee model of governance should be more readily available.

Some key issues are outlined and discussed below.

Decision-making
The current elected mayor has responsibility for all major policy decisions and, while some of this responsibility could be shared with the councillors (currently eight councillors) who form the cabinet, there is no requirement to do so. Cabinet members are appointed and can be sacked by the mayor.

The majority of councillors have little opportunity to contribute to policy-making under the elected mayor, and their decision-making powers are largely restricted to planning or licensing committees, and voting on the mayor’s annual budget proposals.

Under the committee system, the full council of 70 elected councillors would be the strategic decision-making body and elect a leader, usually from the largest political group, and a deputy leader. Full council is required by law to make certain decisions itself, such as approving the annual budget and setting council tax but would mainly delegate its powers to committees of councillors and to officers.

Committees
The committee system requires a number of committees to be established, whose membership reflects the political balance of the council, to take responsibility for key policy and service areas including finance and performance, adult social care, education, children’s services, transport, environment and housing.

Details of the committees would be agreed as part of the transitional arrangements, but it is worth noting that Bristol City Council already has statutory cross-party committees for planning and licensing, which are required under both systems and illustrate how councillors from different political parties can work together. The existing scrutiny committees are also examples of cross-party working amongst councillors.

Delegation to officers
Under both the elected mayor and the committee systems, some local authority functions are the responsibility of statutory officers including the head of paid service, monitoring officer, chief finance officer, director of children’s services and director of adult services; while other delegated functions are set out in officer schemes of delegation.

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Read more: ‘Bristol needs a commitment to collaboration’

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Scrutiny
Under the mayoral system, whilst having no decision-making powers, cross-party scrutiny committees are required to review and question policy; but councillors, members of the public, and even the council’s external auditor, have expressed concern that scrutiny committees cannot work effectively if they are not given access to sufficient information in a timely manner.

The committee system requires arrangements to scrutinise health, community safety and flood prevention, with any additional scrutiny to be agreed as part of the transitional arrangements. The council could decide to have an overview and scrutiny committee, but it is not a requirement because the cross-party composition of committees provides inbuilt opportunities to discuss and review policies.

If the vote is in favour of a committee system, the change in governance arrangements would not take place until after the local elections in May 2024 – photo: Betty Woolerton

Transitional arrangements
If the referendum vote is in favour of the committee model, the result must be considered at an extraordinary full council meeting within 28 days. But the change in governance arrangements would not take place until after the local elections in May 2024, allowing time to develop and debate details of the new committee system and transitional arrangements.

Even proponents of the mayoral system suggest changes are needed to reduce the concentration of power. Bristol Civic Leadership Project propose dispersing some power away from the mayoral office, strengthening the roles of councillors, revitalising neighbourhood governance, and inventing new ways of including more voices in urban governance.

Much of this could be achieved under the committee system, while the option of requiring an elected mayor to reduce their own power is not on the ballot paper: the choice is for Bristol City Council to be run ‘by a mayor who is elected by voters’ or ‘by one or more committees made up of elected councillors’.

If the committee system is chosen, we should grasp the opportunity for a city-wide debate during the transitional period to revitalise local democracy in our city.

Suzanne Audrey is a Bristolian with an interest in local democracy

Main photo: Betty Woolerton

Read more: ‘Bristol is ours – it’s not for a mayor to do whatever they want’

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