Posts tagged Roger Blackmore

A few different sources have told me recently that Peter Soulsby plans to have a “small” cabinet if he becomes mayor in May.

By small, we’re talking about five people – including himself and a deputy mayor – instead of the current ten. This would, in effect, mean even less councillors would have direct influence over city politics.

It’s also then very likely that the compliant remuneration panel will bump their salaries up due to the increased workload.

Now, let me shock you – I think it’s a great idea.

Both Mary Draycott and Roger Blackmore have recently bemoaned the fact that backbench councillors have less clout than ever before. I admire them both, but they hark back to an era of endless committee meetings where every councillor had some sort of influence but decision making was hamstrung by delay and drift.

Cabinet governance reduced that influence and effectively meant that ten people ran the city. Councillors whose treasured influence was sapped by the change disagreed with the move.

There are some genuine talents on the council, but as with many other authorities there are also placemen, cronies and chums.

Some cabinet members, for example, have roles of genuine importance – environment, education – and a workload to match, but some are all but anonymous between cabinet meetings.

By moving from the committee system to the cabinet system, and now the mayoral system, I believe that we are acknowledging that supplementing a team of scores of well educated and experienced officers with 54 laymen is a relic from the past.

I believe the number of councillors should be halved – which would give back bench councillors more clout individually – but that’s for another day.

The new mayor will get even more powers when the localism bill goes through. Great. It’ll help end the paralysis caused by squaring every decision with a political group and a a large council cabinet.

Power should be decentralised from government to local government, but more centralised within local government if it’s to be of any use.

A mayor with a guaranteed term and a cabinet of five, working full time, will speed up decision making, and it means we know exactly who to blame or praise when things go right or wrong respectively.

I have different reservations and concerns about each of the candidates in the race, and do worry about whether unprecedented power in one person’s hands could be abused.

And I still disagree with a six-figure salary for an elected mayor no matter how many powers they’re handed. It is, after all, senior officers who do the sums and the detail, while politicians choose which direction the council heads in.

But under the new system it’s up to the mayor to decide how to weild power, committees and the press will still scrutinise their actions, and at the end of it all the public will judge them. It’s democracy in action.