The decision to ditch the mayoral system and change the way Bristol City Council is run could be “detrimental” to the city, according to the boss of a locally based planning consultancy.
In a referendum held last Thursday (May 5) 59% of residents (56,113 votes) chose to introduce a committee system opposed to 41% (38,439 votes) who wanted to retain the elected mayor model.
Current Bristol Mayor Marvin Rees will complete his current term in office which ends in 2024. From then, the political set-up at the local authority will change for at least the next decade.
The vote was called after a majority of elected members supported a motion at a full council meeting to hold a legally binding ballot of the city’s electorate.
The committee system was previously in place at the city council in the 1990s and was replaced by a leader and cabinet between 2000 and 2012 before independent George Ferguson was voted in as the first directly elected mayor.
Lawrence Turner, associate director at planning consultancy Boyer’s Bristol office, expressed concerns the vote to abolish a city mayor was “tainted” by objections voters had with the personalities of Mr Ferguson and Mr Rees, “rather than the benefits of a committee system.”
Mr Turner said: “In my view, the decision taken was detrimental to Bristol, as an elected mayor gave better accountability to the decisions that were made, whereas committees are less transparent.
“An elected mayor is also better able to promote Bristol and attract inward investment by giving a face to the city. In contrast many people would not know who the leader of Bristol City Council is. Or who sits on the various council committees.”
Mr Turner said he thought having a mayor had helped avoid stalemate in decision-making, adding the committee system there was a risk “less will happen” and party politics could “creep into the planning decision-making process".
Cross-party opposition members of Bristol Council who backed the Scrap the Mayor campaign welcomed the decision last week.
Leader of the Green Party group Cllr Heather Mack said the outcome marked a “new chapter” in the way the city was run, with the committee system a “fairer, more open way of doing business".
Conservative group leader Cllr Mark Weston added: “The mayoral model had proven “a disaster” for Bristol, with “too much power at the whim of one individual.”
A total of 94,937 voters cast their ballots for the referendum out of an electorate of 332,028, including 379 spoiled ballot papers, reflecting a turnout of around 29% Turnout was around 24% in the first Bristol mayoral referendum 10 years earlier when the post was created.
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