How this place is run should be a decision of the people of Liverpool
Liverpool’s Liberal Democrats will be moving a motion at the next meeting of the Liverpool City Council on July 20th.
The motion would be moved by their Deputy Leader Cllr Andrew Makinson who says, “In our manifesto in May we pledged to abolish the position of elected Mayor of Liverpool. Next May we will elect a new mayor of the Liverpool City Region which would mean three Mayors with Liverpool in their title. This would be confusing both inside and outside the City and is an unnecessary expense. £500,000 could be saved by abolishing this post”.
It is legally possible for the Council to vote to abolish the position after mid-February next year but the Lib Dems believe that this is not a decision that should be made just by politicians. Cllr Makinson continued, “We believe that constitutional changes and reforms should not be decided by those that will benefit from them but by the people that we serve. That is why we are asking for a full consultation on the removal with the people of the City. If Labour block this move we will campaign with a petition throughout the summer to force a referendum next May. We only need 16,500 names to ensure referendum and that is easy given the resentment that people feel about not having been consulted about the creation of the mayoralty in the first place”.
The resolution to Council:
Changes to the Governance Structure of Liverpool City Council
Council notes that from February next year the Council can vote to abolish the position of Elected Mayor.
It believes, however, that major constitutional change of this type should be a decision of the people of Liverpool and not just the politicians of Liverpool.
It therefore resolves to commence a major and meaningful consultation with the people and businesses of Liverpool and all interested parties to examine in detail the three potential ways for the Council to work in future namely:
• Continuation of the Mayoral model
• Replacement of the Mayoral model by a Leader and Cabinet System
• Replacement of the Mayoral model by a Leader and Committee System
It resolves to leave the details of the consultation to be determined as a matter of urgency to the Mayor, Deputy Mayor and opposition Group Leaders.
But what does Richard Kemp think? 