Let the people decide, says Bore

Former council leader Sir Albert Bore is calling for a referendum on the issue of a directly-elected mayor for Birmingham.

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Economic Development

BusinessLive

08:38, 23 OCT 2006
Updated02:47, 31 MAY 2013

Former council leader Sir Albert Bore is calling for a referendum to allow the people of Birmingham to decide whether or not the city needs a directly-elected mayor.

Conservative and Lib Dem councillors recently passed a motion stating that the city council "believes that an elected mayor is not in the best interests of Birmingham".

Last week Tony Blair called for more cities to adopt directly-elected mayors, such as in Stoke-on-Trent, which has the first city leader outside the capital to be appointed by the public.

But in an open letter to The Birmingham Post, Sir Albert claims the Labour Group are "totally committed to allowing the people of Birmingham to decide on future governance arrangements".

The White Paper on Local Government is due to be published soon and, once its contents are known, Sir Albert believes that will be when the public will be able to decide whether the city should have a leader of the council elected by councillors, or a mayor voted for by its citizens.

Sir Albert wrote: "If there are to be any changes to the political structures of the council in respect of directly elected posts, these should only follow on from a referendum of the people of Birmingham. As councillors we may wish to make our views known as part of the debate around the referendum but we strongly oppose the council seeking to constrain the debate or avoid a referendum on the issue by ruling out one of these options."

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Sir Albert Bore's letter to the Birmingham Post::

Dear Editor,

I welcome recent articles in The Birmingham Post which seek to take forward the debate on elected mayors. The criticism of the city council and its leader, Mike Whitby, is, in my view and in the view of the Labour Group, justified.

At the council meeting on October 10 councillors had the opportunity of acknowledging that the White Paper on Local Government due to be published in the next few weeks would offer an opportunity to engage the people of Birmingham in a debate about the future Governance arrangements for Birmingham and for any future city region initiative.

Conservative and Lib-Dem councillors agreed a motion which stated that the council "believes that an elected Mayor is not in the best interests of Birmingham and resists any suggestions by Government to appoint one". Labour councillors voted to delete this statement and to add "and believes that, if there are to be any changes to the political structures of the council in respect of directly elected posts, these should only follow on from a referendum of the people of Birmingham".

Why do we take this view? The Labour Group believes that we should first wait for the publication of the White Paper rather than make assumptions about what it will contain.

Secondly, we are totally committed to allowing the people of Birmingham to decide on future governance arrangements, the leader of the council elected by councillors or a mayor elected by the residents of Birmingham.

As councillors we may wish to make our views known as part of the debate around the referendum but we strongly oppose the council seeking to constrain the debate or avoid a referendum on the issues by ruling out one of the options.