The number of people who had their say on whether the North East should have a new elected mayor was “really disappointing”, council bosses have been told.
Results from a public consultation on a proposed £4bn devolution deal for the region, which will involve a new mayor being elected to govern a combined authority across Northumberland, Tyne and Wear and County Durham, were published last week – showing majority public support for the huge plans. But, from a vast area with a combined population of around two million people, there were just 3,235 responses.
Councillors in Newcastle have aired their frustration with the low take-up for a questionnaire which ran for eight weeks earlier this year. Clare Penny-Evans, a Labour representative in Heaton, told an overview and scrutiny committee meeting on Tuesday: “Given the population of those local authorities, it seems really disappointing the amount of people that actually participated in the consultation. I had a go myself and it was quite a prescriptive questionnaire, very limited in how you could answer.
Read More: North East's £4bn devolution deal wins public backing – with more than 60% in favour of new mayor
“I know there was a box where you could write extra information, but it felt a bit like we were asked specific things. I don’t know whether that was part of what we were given by the Government to do, rather than create a more interactive and easier to understand questionnaire.
“It is a bit disappointing with the low take-up and hopefully that will not impact too much on residents’ views of the mayoral authority. We want much greater community engagement with democracy and the structures that govern us, so I hope we can do much more engagement in the future.”
Labour’s Rob Higgins raised particular concern about the number of young people involved in the process – with the bulk of the responses coming from people aged 45 to 74.
This was echoed by St Cuthbert’s High headmaster Dan Murray, who said he had been completely unaware of the consultation and that it had been a “missed opportunity” to reach out to young people. He added: “I think you could have got higher levels of engagement from future voters and some [pupils] who are eligible to vote now.”
The results of the consultation showed that 61.2% of people agreed with the principle of setting up the new combined authority, with 29.6% opposed, and 9.2% neither agreeing nor disagreeing. However, it did not break down how people in each of the seven council areas were split on the devolution question.
Demographic data showed that almost two-thirds of the consultation responses came from people aged 45 to 74, while 97.1% of respondents were white. More men responded than women and County Durham had the highest number of resident responses, with 834 compared to fewer than 400 in each of the other six areas.
John Softly, Newcastle City Council’s assistant director of legal services, said the level of response to the consultation was “similar to what happened with other mayoral combined authority proposals in the country” and that its five questions were specifically worded to satisfy the Government’s requirements.
He added: “We take on board the comments about the consultation and there will be more in the future, it is something we can develop. If the mayoral combined authority is established there will be a mayoral election and awareness raising around that process.”
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