The new lord mayor of Bristol criticised top city councillors for poor quality of debate over a speech by Marvin Rees. Green Cllr Paula O’Rourke had been sworn in to the ceremonial role, which includes chairing full council meetings, minutes earlier on Tuesday (May 24) when she gave party leaders a telling off for their pre-scripted remarks after the address by the city’s directly elected mayor.
Mr Rees said his speech to annual council contained “real substance” about the crises facing Bristol unlike the opposition groups’ replies and that many members used the City Hall chamber for political “theatre” and grabbing headlines instead of serious debate. Cllr O’Rourke found herself agreeing with the Labour mayor and pointed out that the agenda item was called “Mayor's address to full council with party group leader responses”.
She told the meeting: “I’m not making a political point here but I am saying the quality of debate must be better. What is the topic here? In my year here in this chair I don’t have a huge amount of influence or power, but if the mayor is making a speech and you‘re supposed to be responding, I would really try to urge and encourage people to have debates that actually respond to what we’re talking about – not just on this issue but on everything.
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“I will go further and say that when I was ill I watched two meetings on the television and it really was obvious that a lot of people write speeches a day or two beforehand and don’t ‘respond’. The quality of debate and the interest in everything is going to be so much better if we challenge ourselves to actually listen and respond.”
Mr Rees said that while his address tackled the “major social challenges of our time” he struggled to understand some of the party leaders’ replies. During his speech, the mayor said he would continue to deliver “key achievements” before his role was replaced with a committee system in two year’s time to make Bristol City Council’s decisions.
He said: “Bristol is a major UK city with a global role. It’s not a village. We have a £15billion economy. We are grappling with interconnected social challenges. These challenges are getting more acute because of both the consequences of covid and the national cost-of-living crisis.
“We are trying to meet these challenges in a context of a climate and ecological combined emergency where the actions we take will determine the price the planet pays for us meeting our population’s needs. That is why we are absolutely focused on delivery.” Main opposition Green group leader Cllr Heather Mack said: “We are at a crossroads for our democracy and therefore as a city.
“Our role is not just getting things done. Bristol needs good decisions, not just fast decisions or lots of decisions. We have an issue with trust in the city. It looks like this council doesn’t trust Bristolians.
“How we do things can be as important as what we do. Democratic practices may sound like a minor issue compared with the massive challenges facing our city today but the validity of everything we do in this chamber rests on us making decisions in the right way. I’m glad that under the coming committee system, councillors from all parties will be involved in council policy and hold us to our ambition for a net zero Bristol by 2030.
“We need to create a future governance system where things are done ‘with’ people, not ‘to people.” Conservative group leader Cllr Mark Weston said: “We’re going to have to change the way we work.
“Gladiatorial politics is all very fun but the reality is that outside of about 80 people watching this on YouTube, the city doesn’t pay much attention to it. We are going to have to learn to compromise. We’ve proved we can do it – we did it on the budget. We can actually work together to get things done.
“The committee system is better than the mayoral model but it’s only better if we work together, and maybe it’s about time we had some grown-up politics in this chamber.” Lib Dem leader Cllr Jos Clark said: “Bristolians have made it really clear that they did not want so much power ceded to one person.
“Marvin, wouldn't it be nice to leave the city in a good place when you leave office in 2024 and get some of the basics sorted? The issues around SEND are still not resolved.” Mr Rees said: “When the cameras are rolling, we use this chamber for theatre when actually there are very serious challenges facing the city.
“As the lord mayor suggested, the quality of debate and discussion in this chamber is poor, and then we get this lament that people don't take the chamber seriously.”
