Elected Mayors - Flawed Consultation

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I suppose I'm becoming cynical but, having had some experience documented in this blog of Bolton Council's 'Consultations', I was incensed by an article in the Bolton News a few weeks ago where Sean Harris the Chief Executive stated that following the pathetic response to the so called Consultation on the future operation of the Executive of the Council, where the majority were in favour of an elected mayor, they were going to ignore it anyway and go their own sweet way.

I rattled off a letter to the Bolton News which this time round they actually printed. It went as follows.
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Dear Sir

So we are not to have an elected mayor. The powers that be decided to consult the people. Another consultation - this time through Bolton Scene, almost guaranteed to produce a poor numerical response.

Come on, -who reads it? It goes either straight into the recycling bin or the outside toilet. But this suits the purposes of the Town hall, elected or employed. Turkeys just don't vote for Christmas.

Even though a miserable number of 622 people took part in the consultation and even though a majority supported the idea, this was sufficient for it to be ignored. If only 622 people voted in a Council by election then whoever the majority voted for would be elected. What's the difference?

Unfortunately the Council have a track record on arranging consultations which they can then ignore. What about the Market Hall? What about spending £31,500 ripping up a perfectly good footpath in Little Lever that's only been down five years? (Work starts this Sunday).

The existing structure of the Council, with it's executive members for this and that, means that the Councillors elected by Little Lever, irrespective of party, are 'junior' to certain other councillors. Does this mean that they are less able to effectively represent their electors?

The proposed Cabinet structure would only make this situation worse. This is emulating the situation with national Government. It doesn't lend itself to more efficiency, it just means they can do what they want for four or five years.

Why is the Chief Executive, Sean Harris, commenting on this? It's Cliff Morris's job. He is the one who was elected. Who is running this Town hall?

My manifesto for running for elected mayor would be obvious to all and no doubt would be shared, no doubt, by many other of your readers who would want to run.

Competence, Value for money, scrap final salary gold plated inflation proofed pension schemes, scrap all this political correctness stuff, stop translating every document into a dozen different languages, fewer chiefs, more workers, enforce the laws and by-laws without fear or favour, make people do the jobs they are paid to do with our money and don't think you only need to listen to the electors in the three weeks before polling day.

The question of elected mayors should be put to a referendum of registered electors and be independently organised by the Electoral Commission, not left to the whim and fancy of the incumbents who wish to preserve their position.

My points are completely without reference to one party or another, but democracy has to happen every day, not just once a year or once every five years.

End of Letter
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Since then there have been several other mentions of Elected Mayors in letters and Columns.

First of all Alan Calvert of the Bolton News
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Unlike some of the people who write letters to this newspaper, I think the idea of an elected Mayor for Bolton is plain daft.

I have said the same thing at various intervals over the years and it pleases me that council leaders dismissed this option after a consultation exercise that provoked little interest or excitement.

Six people used one of the 4,000 leaflets produced by the council and only 35 people returned the tear-off consultation slip contained in 120,000 copies of Bolton Scene, the council newspaper.

Some 622 people took part in a month-long consultation that cost £4,300 and, not surprisingly, more people were in favour of an elected Mayor than against.
The ruling Labour executive, supported by the Conservative and Liberal Democrat opposition parties, chose to ignore this flawed democratic result and concentrate on the other option being pushed by the government — a new-style council leader and executive.

A final decision on whether to adopt this new system will be made by the full council on December 9.

This new leader — presumably Labour’s Cliff Morris — would have more responsibility and that would apply equally to John Walsh (Conservative) and Roger Hayes (Liberal Democrat) if either of those gentlemen were to win the most seats at next year’s election.

Before the decision is taken it would be helpful if the council could spell out the details in full for our benefit.

Would the new-style leader receive a larger allowance and be expected to put in more hours?

Would the same apply to a new executive?

If so, what would the advantages be for those of us who pay council tax?

I am delighted that the elected Mayor idea is dead in the water, but I have yet to be convinced that the alternative change is necessary for the town.

End of article.
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This prompted a letter from a James Birch of Sharples as follows:-

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So, Bolton Council have decided that we will not have an elected mayor.
I don’t like to say I told you so, but several weeks ago my letter was published in The Bolton News saying that the decision had already been made by the council and I was proved right.

No, I did not attend any meetings or return any tear-off consultation slip from the Labour Party propaganda paper Bolton Scene which just goes directly into my paper recycle bin
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As I said before, what’s the point?

I believe that 622 people took part in the consultation which was not sufficient numbers for the council. Could they inform me, and others, how many people would be an acceptable number? 722? 922? 1,022?

If a councillor was elected with a majority of less than 622 I presume that would not be acceptable and a second election would be called.

Dream on!

According to Alan Calvert (The Bolton News, November 9), Labour, Conservative and Liberal Democrats chose to ignore this flawed democratic result.

Is democracy flawed if you don't get the result you want?

It is typical of Bolton Council’s “I know best attitude”.

I look forward to December 9 when the full council will again vote for no change.

End of letter
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In response to this a letter was published from Peter Johnson as follows:-

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James Birch complains that a majority of 622 people (0.07% of the electorate) failed to procure an elected executive mayor for Bolton.

In the days when the Labour Movement had more regard for the rules and procedures thanit apparently does now, a major constitutional proposal of this significance would require not merely a simple majority but the support of 75% of all those eligible to vote, it being deemed in the absence of such levels of support that there is insufficient majority for constitutional change

Clearly, most of the population is not in the slightest interested in such a change. Not suprising.

A senior colleague in a Yorkshire Authority said to me a couple of years ago 2 If you are thinking of having an elected mayor, I have one simple word of advice for you - Don't"

"We've got one and you can't keep tabs on the blighter and if we can't keep tabs on him what chance has the ordinary punter?"

Says it all, really.

End of letter.
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In the meantime I had been researching the background to all this and composed a further letter to the Bolton News which summarised my findings.
I sent this a week ago but so far it hasn't been published. (Hopefully because it was too long, rather than any collusion between the Bolton News and the Council)
The letter went as follows.
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Dear Sir

Further to my letter of last week about an Elected Mayor for Bolton, a little further research has produced the following points of interest.

The Local government Act of 2000 requires the Council to draw up proposals for the operation of executive arrangements within the Council. They have a choice of two options.

A directly elected Mayor and a Cabinet of up to nine Councillors appointed by that Mayor.
A Leader elected by the Council and a Cabinet of up to nine Councillors not necessarily appointed by the Leader.

Originally there was a third option of Elected Mayor and Council manager but for English Authorities this was removed by a Local Government Act in 2007.

Bolton Council as of today however are still quoting the three options on their Website.

Quote:-

Mayoral referendums

The Local Government Act 2000 set out a major change in the way local authorities in England and Wales are run. Most local authorities, except some of the smaller district councils in the area of a county council, operate 'executive arrangements'. There are three types of executive arrangement set out in the Act, two of which involve a directly elected mayor: mayor and cabinet, and mayor and council manager. The other involves a leader (who is elected by councillors) and cabinet. Local authorities consult on which arrangements local people want. If there is a proposal to have a mayor, the local authority must hold a binding referendum. Many councils in England have already conducted consultations with local people on this issue. Local residents can also require a mayoral referendum by organising a petition signed by 5% of local electors or more (10% or more in Wales).

Unquote.

Before drawing up such proposals, the Act requires that a local authority must take reasonable steps to consult the local government electors for, and other interested persons in, the authority’s area.

The term 'reasonable' is a generic and relative one and applies to that which is appropriate for a particular situation.

There can hardly be a more serious situation than an alteration in way in which we are locally governed by the Council.

This consultation therefore requires a method which will produce the maximum informed response from the 262,400 electors and residents.
The Council has many methods at its disposal of communicating with residents. Again I quote from the Councils Website.

Quote:-

Getting involved

We try to give as many people as possible the opportunity to ‘Speak Up’ and there are a number of different ways of getting involved including area forums, citizens panels, door to door surveys, postal and online questionnaires, telephone interviews and discussion groups.

Local Polls

Local Polls are a form of referendum that Councils can carry out to test public opinion within the borough. Local Polls can take place with the use of traditional polling stations or by all-postal ballot.

Unquote.

The Council chose to conduct its consultation by means of a questionnaire in the September issue of Bolton Scene. As far as I am aware none of the other above options were pursued. Nor as far as I am aware was there any pre-notification of this questionnaire in the Bolton News, the Area Forums, the Council Website or in the Libraries.

Although the Scene is delivered free to 120,000 households there are no statistics as to how many are read or how many go directly into the recycling bin.
There is nothing on the front page of the September issue to say that a most important questionnaire is on page 9. Don't throw this away.!!

The questionnaire produced a extremely poor response of 622 replies. Although a majority of respondents were in favour of an elected Mayor the Council has chosen to disregard the results and are therefore pursuing the Leader and Cabinet option.

The two options were laid out without any attempt to provide information about the consequences of choosing one or the other.

For instance it could have been pointed out that the elected Mayor would be able to appoint any Councillor to his Cabinet as he or she saw fit, irrespective of that Councillors Political allegiance thus possibly putting an end to the dominance of one party or another in the conduct of the Council's business.

The elected Mayor might choose to appoint a Cabinet of all the talents thus utilising the best brains amongst the elected Councillors irrespective of party.

They have not therefore provided in the questionaire sufficient information or detail for the electors to come to a conclusion which might have prompted more people to reply to it.

It is my contention that in using a singular method of consultation without pre-notification and in ill-informing the residents about the different consequences of the two options means that it did not fulfill the requirement of the Act that it was 'reasonable'.

I am writing to the Secretary of State concerned to point this out and it may well be that, should he concur, he will oblige Bolton Council to re-consult.

In any event, if a petition, signed by 5% of the electors of the Borough and asking for a referendum on the matter, can be presented to the Council, then they are obliged to conduct one.

I intend to organise such a petition, on the basis that the proposed method of operation of the Council would only further entrench the waste and incompetence that is described daily in your newspaper and that a new independant broom is required to achieve maximum value for our money and a greater attention being paid to the views of the Boroughs electors.

Those of you of a like mind may care to contact me at 'kathy.maddox@ntlworld.com' or write to me at the address below

Paul Richardson
24 Ripon Close
Little Lever
Bolton


(Dear Editor. I know this is a long letter but the subject matter is of the utmost importance to the residents of Bolton and your readers. I think the Council have contrived to do the minimum to avoid the possibility of an elected Mayor and they are having one over on us - again)

For your convenience I attach the relevant copy of Bolton Scene.

End of letter.
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By this time, cynical old me suspects that Bolton Council think they have got away with this one, so, I thought in for a penny -in for a pound.

I have thus e-mailed John Denham, Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government the following and copied it to Brian Iddon, David Crausby and Ruth Kelly.
(Because I used my unpublished letter above as the main part of the e-mail I have bracketed this.)
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Attn Mr John Denham
Secretary of State
Department of Communities and Local Government

Dear Sir,

May I bring to your attention a matter related to the statutory requirement in the Local Government Act of 2000 for Local Authorities to carry our a reasonable consultation with local government electors and other interested parties before drawing up proposals for changes in the way in which the Executive operates.
In the case of Bolton Metropolitan Authority it is my contention that this requirement has not been fulfilled.

My reasons for arriving at this conclusion are contained in a letter which I have written to the Bolton News (so far unpublished) which I copy for you below.

(BODY OF LETTER TO BOLTON NEWS)

To further re-inforce my point might I draw your attention to a definition of 'consultation'

Public consultation, or simply consultation, is a regulatory process by which the public's input on matters affecting them is sought. Its main goals are in improving the efficiency, transparency and public involvement in large-scale projects or laws and policies. It usually involves notification (to publicise the matter to be consulted on), consultation (a two-way flow of information and opinion exchange) as well as participation (involving interest groups in the drafting of policy or legislation.

The process is typical of Commonwealth countries such as the United Kingdom, Canada, New Zealand or Australia.

Incidentally when I down loaded the 'Petitioning for elected mayor - information pack' from your website, this is also still quoting the three options.

I would be grateful if you would examine the situation in relation to Bolton Council's handling of this matter and form a judgement as to whether they had satisfied the requirements of the Act.

It is obvious that Bolton Council ( or any other for that matter) would have a vested interest in not wanting an elected mayor which is why, presumably, the requirement for reasonable consultation was incorporated into the Act.

At the moment it seems that Bolton Council have only paid lip service to their statutary duty and have conducted and concluded the business with indecent haste.

Yours sincerely - etc

End of e-mail.
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Let's see if that does anything !!!!

In regard to the Bolton News. I am becoming increasingly worried and irritated with the watered down reports and comments that it is producing which are not reflecting the frustrations and anger of many residents on many subjects - particularly related to the activities of the Council.
I have therefore just written a letter (yet to be published) based on a report in the Daily Mail this week.

It goes as follows.
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Dear Sir,
Perhaps your readers would be interested in the recent comments of The Lord Chief Justice, Lord Judge, to the Conference of the Society of Editors.

He said that people should get their information about what local Councils are doing from independent sources.

Quote "I don't want the proceedings of the local Council to be reported to the public by an employee of that Council." Unquote

He further said that local papers that used to report fully on what town halls are doing have been weakened by the recession and the growth of the internet and in some cases Councils have launched their own expensively produced papers to rival the independent press.

In addition he said that some local weekly newspapers are relying on Council press officers for the information they print. Quote " If that is true it should send a shiver down all our spines. Unquote.

I am sure that the Bolton News is not one of these papers. If it is not already, the Bolton News should be the major campaigning organ holding the Council to account in terms of prudence, efficiency and competence. In the unlikely event that anyone ever read the Bolton Scene they would think that everything in the Bolton garden was lovely - as opposed to the reality that it is not.

By all means the Council are entitled to publicise its achievements but it should also honestly own up to its shortcomings, the catalogue of which grows longer by the week.

The public would respect them more for that.

As Lord Judge said - 'Spin is neither a cornerstone or a bulwark of a free society'.

End of letter.
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It may well be that should a referendum of all the electors of Bolton be held then the majority would reject the option of an elected mayor and opt instead for the Leader and Cabinet. If that was the case - fine!!

The point is we don't know.

The Council don't know.

We ought to know and that would be the end of the matter.

The Government have, to their credit, done a survey about the attitudes of the public to elected mayors, Councils, Local democracy and the like. It makes interesting reading. There are 91 pages, well laid out which I'm certainly not going to reproduce here but the link for those interested is:-

http://www.communities.gov.uk/documents/localgovernment/pdf/154842.pdf

Good reading to you all.

For your info I copy the questionnaire ex Sept Bolton Scene
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How the councilmakes decisions
Do you want an Elected Mayor or a Leader?
The way the council makes decisions will change next year. And voters will have a
big say about what happens

New national legislation – the Local Government and Public Involvement in Health
Act 2007 – means the council has to change the way it is governed by May next year. It also has to ask residents what they think of the different systems of government on offer and which they prefer.

At present the council is governed by a leader and an executive. The full council (a meeting where all councillors can attend) decides who the leader is and who the members of the executive are and their roles and responsibilities.

The system was introduced in 2000 following national legislation to change the old
committee model of government. Whichever system is introduced, voters will still elect councillors to represent them and their area. Now the council is asking for people’s views about the following two options by October 4. Based on these views the council will have to make a decision about which method it chooses by the end of the year. The new system will have to be introduced by May.

Please fill in the form opposite and return to us by freepost. For further information visit our website: www.bolton.gov.uk where you can also make your comments.

If you require additional forms for other members of your household, these can be collected from your local library or you can complete the form online.

The Elected Mayor
• A mayor elected by voters every four years
• The elected mayor does not represent a ward
• The mayor is not a councillor
• Between two and nine councillors appointed to the executive by the elected mayor
• The elected mayor decides the roles and responsibilities of the executive members
• The executive submits the budget and strategic policies to the full council which can only amend or overturn the policies by a two-thirds majority • The civic role of the mayor would have to be discussed

The ‘new style’ Leader and cabinet
• A councillor is elected as leader of the executive for up to four years by the full council
• The length of term of the leader is decided by how long is left until she or he has to stand for election again
• Between two and nine councillors are appointed to the executive by the leader
• The leader appoints a deputy leader to act on their behalf when necessary
• The leader decides the roles and responsibilities of the executive members
• The executive submits the budget and strategic policies to the full council which can amend or overturn them by a majority

Questionnaire;
Which option would you prefer for Bolton?
Please tick one box only.
The Elected Mayor
The ‘new style’ Leader and cabinet
Why? (Please write your comments in the box below)
Name: . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
Postcode: . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
Signature: . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
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Cheers - Paul