Great to see William Wallace’s recent critique of the elected Mayoral system This creeping assault on local democracy by the usual unholy Labour-Conservative alliance is now gathering pace, with the new Labour government committed to its expansion.
William is right that the Mayoral system is a mess, but so too is local government as a whole, weakened by decades of underinvestment, now undermined further by the mayoral expansion process.
England currently has a chaotic patchwork, with largely the north being used as a ‘test bed’ for the mayoral system. I use the term advisedly, and note Liz Kendall’s call last week that ‘we need to experiment to get evidence’. Quite. Where is the empirical evidence that Combined County Authorities, like the ‘East Midlands’ one, just imposed on Notts and Derbys, are going to work efficiently, let alone democratically, in improving people’s lives? As a district councillor on the only non-Labour or Tory led authority in the new Mayoral authority area, I feel I am entitled to some proof, on behalf of my residents.
I am concerned that the LGA, and for that matter, think tanks with a role in public policy analysis, seem at best uncritical, at worst supine in their acceptance of this false devolution. I’ve tried hard and cannot see who is providing essential critical analysis of the democratic deficit and effectiveness of delivery or projects, targets and growth that these Mayoral authorities actually give – and crucially how ‘Metro Mayors’ are performing compared to the Combined County Authorities.
I can sort of understand that cohesive predominantly urban areas like Greater Manchester and London might achieve some improved delivery, in for example, public transport, but where is the evidence that this is working in diversely dispersed combined urban-rural authorities? I would like to see our new overwhelmingly southern MPs wake up to this issue, before it is presumably rolled out inexorably across their counties.
Derbyshire and Nottinghamshire’s new EMCCA has a desultory budget of £38m over the next 30 years – unless it raises extra through higher local taxation, or where a lucky few councils may succeed in bidding for extra central government grants, filtered through the Combined Mayoral Authority, in a divisive competitive race.
And then there is the democratic deficit – in the EMCCA area, only two lower tier Derbyshire councils (out of 8) have a seat at the table with the Mayor, and whilst there is a ‘guarantee’ of no tinkering with the rest of local government in the county for six years, what is the future ratio of representatives to electors likely to be?
Perhaps worst of all is the often touted, and actually quite belittling, idea that ‘we need figureheads able to stand up and speak to Westminster’… err, in the same way that local government leaders used to be able to do before they were emasculated? If only we had the cash that is being frittered on the overheads for this new layer of ‘government’, directly invested in local council services, perhaps we might have local leaders with the confidence to ‘stand up’, as well as truly deliver on the ground.
* Cllr Roger Shelley is a Lib Dem Councillor on Derbyshire Dales District Council
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7 Comments
The attack on local democracy isn’t ‘creeping’: it’s direct. Fewer and fewer parts of England now have wards small enough for voters to know councillors and vice versa. When representation becomes remote, the sense of democratic community disappears. I was struck by the courage of a Harehills Councilllor (in Leeds) in speaking to rioters the other week, and impressed that people listened to him: local representation under the most acute circumstances. We should campaign for local democracy, against administrative decentralization. The unrepresented riot; those who feel represented and heard take part in their communities.
I wonder what might happen here in Cheshire, a county wide mayor would have to be in addition the our PCC. This is because a Borough (Halton) within the PCC area now is part of the Liverpool City Region Mayoralty. And that’s in addition to Merseyside’s own PCC. All very confusing!
More serious, as said, is the diminution of the role of Councillors, in their ability to influence how their communities services are run and evolve.
As a party we should be making more noise about our local government policies, ie to end elected Mayors and PCCs, reform tax raising powers, election by PR, greater responsibilities for Councils (not Whitehall) and an end to the crazy biding systems which are an excuse for reduced investment in local communities.
@ William Wallace, “Fewer and fewer parts of England now have wards small enough for voters to know councillors and vice versa. When representation becomes remote, the sense of democratic community disappears”.
I agree with William, but must point out that this is a consequence and already the situation in Scotland following the introduction of P.R. in Council, elections there. I was a Lib Dem Councillor there in a ward twenty miles long and ten miles wide with 14,000 electors and twelve village community Councils. It’s a conundrum….. and incidentally….. a problem pointed out by H.H. Asquith during the debates on the 1918 franchise Act.
Are we now seeing one difference between us and Labour ? Several years ago I was involved in our council reorganising its ward boundaries, a decision all parties on the council voluntarily agreed to do. At a meeting with the chair and CEO of the Boundary Commission I suggested a scheme which fitted well with local communities, mainly with 2 councillor wards, 4 year terms and elections in halves (every 2 years). They agreed it was a good fit but said it is ruled out by the Act of Parliament passed by the previous Labour government. So we could not do it.
Lib-Dems believe such decisions should be made locally, with national government support and advice and not dictated to by whichever party happens to be in Whitehall.
@David Raw: your ward sounds like ours in electorate, area and CCs. We have 2 Lib Dems and one SNP councilor. Before the last elections there were 3 parties represented and a neighbouring ward had 4 councilors, all from different parties. You can take your issue to the one who appears most approachable, or whose political views chime with yours. Long live the Single Transferable Vote.
@ Robin Bennett Just to remind you that William wrote, “Fewer and fewer parts of England now have wards small enough for voters to know councillors and vice versa”.
You write, “you can take your issue to the one who appears most approachable”. A question, Robin, how do you know which Councillor/s is/are the most approachable if, by definition, the wards are too big to know who the Councillors are ?
This seems to be a battle between effectivenesss and democracy. The public seem to be more interested in effectiveness and larger authorities can be more efficient. Perhaps the solution is to combine larger authorities and a more powerful and comprehensive third tier of town and parish councils .