Liverpool Council has voted to remove the position of elected city mayor after 10 years.
A binding vote in the town hall tonight means that from next May's elections onwards, there will no longer be a directly elected Mayor of Liverpool. The position will be removed next year after it was first brought in back in 2012.
But there were angry rows at the full council meeting this evening as the city's ruling Labour group voted successfully for the mayoralty to be replaced by a council leader and cabinet model that was in place in the city up until 2012. That's despite that particular option coming bottom of three potential governance systems in a recent public consultation.
Speaking against the Labour move and calling for a public vote on the matter, Liberal leader Steve Radford said Labour were 'taking the micky' out of the people of the city. He added: "You are saying we are going to vote for the least popular option and after asking the people of the city, we don't give a damn what they think"
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Opposition parties the Liberal Democrats and Greens then joined forces in the chamber to try and vote through a move to the committee system at tonight's meeting but they were voted down by the majority Labour group. That system, in which decisions are made by groups of council committees made up of all parties, came above the leader model in the public consultation. But this move was voted down by Labour.
Reacting, Lib Dem leader Cllr Richard Kemp said: "Spending £140,000 on a consultation and going for the third option of the three, shows the contempt the Labour Party has for the feelings of the people of Liverpool." Green leader Tom Crone asked how Labour councillors could 'keep straight faces' while backing the least popular option.
A bad tempered meeting saw Labour cabinet member Harry Doyle took aim at the opposition parties, telling them they were 'not fit for purpose' as well as 'weak and lazy', claiming that they were the reason that the committee system would not work. His cabinet colleague Dan Barrington said 'a committee system would be a costly system of endless meetings that would prevent the council from making timely decisions.'
The current Mayor of Liverpool, Joanne Anderson, had pledged to hold a city-wide referendum on whether to scrap the mayoralty or not when she campaigned to replace Joe Anderson last year. However, she and the council chose to instead hold a cheaper public consultation after it was decided that the next Liverpool Council elections would be moved from this year to next year.
The move to all out elections, held every four years and starting in 2023, was one of the changes brought in following the damning Max Caller government inspection of the council, which lifted the lid on a huge range of failures and problems when it was published last March.
Despite the council's claims over costs, many people were frustrated not to be given a vote on how the city is run going forward. They were even more frustrated by the way the public consultation was carried out and the subsequent actions of the Labour group.
Just 4% of the city's residents took part in the consultation and of that number, more than 40% said they would prefer to keep the mayoral system. Around 32% opted for the committee system while just 24% went for the leader and cabinet model.
Despite the leader system finishing last of three, the Labour group on the council immediately stated that it intended to support that style of leadership, arguing that the poor response rate of the consultation meant it was not representative. Tonight Labour carried out that decision and ensure the council will return to a leader and cabinet system from next May.
Speaking tonight, Liverpool Independents group leader Anna Rothery described the consultation as a 'abysmal' and a 'complete and utter waste of money', but it was defended by Mayor Anderson, who said it was one of the most successful consultations the city has run.
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