Building for a Referendum

The following article was published in the Leicester Mercury on April 22, 2014.

In 2011, Leicester elected an executive mayor. Today, this one person has more power over council services than all of the 54 equally democratically elected councillors. The previous system, where the councillors elected their own leadership and had more power to make decisions, was replaced without asking the people of Leicester.

In other cities, a referendum was held to decide on the change, most deciding against. In Leicester, we did not get the opportunity to vote.

Yes, the executive mayor is an elected position, but in his four-year term of office he can do virtually what he wants.

Councillors are relegated to “scrutinising” decisions. It is true decisions can be overturned, but only if two-thirds of councillors agree.

Why should one individual have so much power anyway? It is far harder for people to lobby and influence the all-powerful mayor than their local councillor. It means fewer checks on decisions, such as which organisations will benefit from the sale of council land or buildings for £1, for example. It means when services are cut, people have less of a say.

In the USA, many cities are run by “big personality” mayors, supervised only by elected “boards” which meet once a year to hand out contracts for public services to private providers.

It’s far easier, in such a system, for one person to take unpopular decisions to cut services – or to favour big business interests.

Services in Leicester are being brutally cut, particularly hitting the most vulnerable.

The mayor is cutting vital services such as children’s centres, adventure playgrounds and hostel beds for the homeless, as well as closing and selling off old peoples’ homes.

At the same time, he is spending millions of pounds on capital projects, mainly in the city centre, such as Jubilee Square.

Yes, cuts are being made by national government. But they could be fought against by local politicians if they chose, by:

• Using the £150 million in reserves, the £23 million being gained from the sale of council land and buildings and borrowing powers if necessary, to maintain vital services.
• Building a massive campaign to defend our services and demand more from the Government.

Removing the city mayor position in itself will not solve all the problems. But it at least gives us a system more responsive to people’s needs.

If 5 per cent of the electors of the city of Leicester sign our petition it would, by law, trigger a referendum. Web-based petitions are not valid, so you have to sign the paper one.

Then we could finally have our say whether to continue with the post of city mayor before the next election takes place in May 2015.

Download the petition here: http://goo.gl/XGzhUd