Your say / Politics
‘Bristol’s independent mayoral role has been corrupted and politically hijacked’
As Bristol prepares to host the annual summit of the Global Parliament of Mayors from October 21 to 23, Bristol’s first elected mayor George Ferguson asks if we should we scrap the post of elected mayor altogether.
In May 2012 Bristol was the only one of 10 major English cities to vote to create the position of elected mayor. In November that year I was, against all odds, elected as Bristol’s first elected mayor. We like to do things differently and the result of Bristol’s mayoral referendum and the election of an independent candidate was certainly different.
I’m proud of the very real progress we made in just three and a half years towards making us what has been described as a greener, livelier, more resilient and respected city.
is needed now More than ever
At the time I strongly supported the whole idea of cities having mayors, although given the choice I would have much preferred redrawn boundaries to ensure we had complete city regions, such as we now see with Greater Manchester where their elected mayor, Andy Burnham, has become the de facto PM of the North.
It was for that reason that I led our West of England negotiations with the Cameron Government that led to the formation of the Combined Authority of Bristol, South Gloucester, Bath & North East Somerset, tied to the election of a Metro Mayor for the new city region.
So Bristol – and Liverpool, which preempted the referendum by deciding to adopt the mayoral system without a public vote – are now the only UK ‘core cities’ to have the confusing situation of two tiers of elected mayors. This does not lead to harmony and all indications in Bristol are that we have exchanged progress and a four-party rainbow cabinet for a very negative form of partisan politics.
An added benefit of scrapping the Bristol elected mayor role is that it would increase the chance of bringing North Somerset (which had decided to cut off its nose to spite its face by remaining outside the West of England Combined Authority) back into the fold to create a more cohesive and recognisable Bristol & Bath City Region, with all the advantages in terms of proper strategic planning of transport, environment, homes and public health.
Barbara Janke, who was the Lib Dem leader of Bristol City Council prior to us having an elected mayor and is now in the House of Lords, brought a successful motion to the House in 2015 enabling Bristol to re-consider its leadership structure in the future. She was never happy about us adopting a mayoral form of government and, maybe surprisingly as mayor at the time, I supported her proposal as being right and proper in a democracy.
So Bristol has a chance to reconsider its governance, with the possibility of a second public vote in 2022. The fact is the situation has changed to such an extent since 2012, and the independent mayoral role has been so corrupted and politically hijacked, that I would be extremely surprised if this right is not exercised.
During the coming three years we should do all we can to strengthen our city deal and to rebrand as the Bristol & Bath City Region with a strong and preferably independent metro mayor at the helm from May 2021, and an opportunity to return to democratic cabinet government for Bristol from May 2022.
It is not for me but for the people of Bristol to answer the question: should we scrap the post of Bristol elected city mayor? The jury is out!
George Ferguson was mayor of Bristol from 2012 to 2016
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