‘We need scrutiny, we need accountability and we need transparency’

On May 5, Bristol will decide whether or not to change its governance system from a mayoral system to a committee system.

With trust in politics and politicians at a low point, is there room for hope? And which of the two proposed systems will give you, an ordinary citizen of Bristol, the most effective voice in our city’s politics?

There’s a thought experiment in politics called “the veil of ignorance”. Developed by John Rawls, the idea is that if you had no knowledge of your own status, ethnicity, gender or all the other variable human characteristics, you would design the structure of society impartially and rationally in solidarity with others.

Imagine you had to design a city governance system from scratch in this way in Bristol. What would you include? I’d want to make sure that any resident or group could effectively take action on a local issue, and for that voice to carry weight and be listened to by others.

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Read more: Mayoral referendum: what do people in Hillfields think? 

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I’d want the city authorities to be set up with this built into the democratic structures so that power would flow from individuals within their communities and up through the neighbourhood level to the citywide level where representatives would be drawn from all parts of Bristol.

I think this bottom-up approach would improve decision-making and the policies and plans the city authorities put together.

Taking this perspective would limit the amount that one person can do to communities without their input and create a joint partnership of representatives at the highest political level in the city, accountable to that body and the people they serve.

We’ve had ten years of mayoral governance in Bristol, and of course, it hasn’t all been terrible. Some good decisions have been made, and some bad decisions too. But the simple fact is that many of those decisions could have been made better with more input from others (eg. the decision not to cash out on the failed Bristol Energy project with eventual losses of £32.5m to the city).

The big argument from the pro-mayor campaign is that mayors “get things done”. So does every other governance system. Tell us more! If they did, they’d have to admit that a lot of things get done (whether good or bad) without anyone except the mayor and his inner circle knowing anything about them before the decisions are taken.

This is dangerous for our city. We need scrutiny, we need accountability and we need transparency – three things diminished by the top-down system we currently have.

The pro-mayor campaign states that an election every four years is where accountability comes in. But this is such an impoverished view of how democracy functions – you get your one say at the ballot box and then have to live with the consequences.

Wouldn’t it be better if we, as citizens, were enabled to contribute to our democracy continuously rather than having to sit idly by and have it done to us?

Imagine contacting your local councillor, who is sitting on a committee on the very issue you need help with, and them having the direct power to advocate your view and – potentially – change the direction of the city on that issue. Isn’t that how these things should work?

Instead, at present, we have a system where councillors are largely ignored and their best talents go to waste with no outlet for them to contribute to policy formation. It is often said the councillors do have power where it matters – to set the budget.

This year’s budget resulted in a lot of excellent cross-party amendments to the budget passing. The mayor then refused to accept the package, choosing to negotiate in private to get his budget passed – the mayor’s way, or no way. This simply could not happen under a more democratic committee system.

The UK government has pushed through a change in how we elect mayors. This means that if the mayoral system is retained, the 2024 election will be run using first past the post.

First past the post is the least representative way to elect politicians, so the contention that mayors are accountable at the ballot box makes even less sense. First preference votes for the mayor in 2021 were 36 per cent which, if repeated in 2024, would mean 64 per cent of people’s votes (the majority) would not contribute to the result.

Alternatively, the election of the council – made up of all of our communities and their different political preferences – would create a proportionally balanced set of committees on which residents could be represented.

Working in partnership – as councillors already do on the existing committees in a predominantly non-partisan way – would be the new norm for making city-level decisions, with perspectives from all parties and all communities being heard.

Politics is struggle. It is communities – particularly those marginalised by the political class – arguing and campaigning for a better deal: for better pay and conditions, cleaner air, warm homes and safer streets.

It’s hitting our net zero climate targets so that our children have a liveable planet and city to call home. (I’ve argued elsewhere that to rapidly decarbonise transport, we need to rapidly decentralise decision making.) This struggle at the moment is making so many people listless, with feelings of powerlessness taking over.

On May 5, do one thing to make the struggle less hard: vote for change. Vote to move to the committee system and begin the transformation of Bristol’s democracy for the better.

Bristol24/7 will be hosting a Twitter Space on Tuesday, May 3 at 7pm where people in favour of retaining the mayoral system and people who want to change to a committee system will be invited to speak

Rob Bryher is urging people to vote for a switch to a committee system – photo: Rob Bryher

Rob Bryher is the Car Free Bristol campaigner for the climate charity Possible. He was a Green Party councillor (2013-16) and served as the Green council group leader and chair of the Association of Green Councillors. He has a master’s degree in urban planning from UWE Bristol and has previously worked for North Somerset Council in transport policy. He is writing this in a personal capacity.

Main photo: CB Bristol Design

Read more: Mayor vs committee: what do Bristolians think?

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