Elected mayor 'could speed up decisions' (From Basingstoke Gazette)

Elected mayor 'could speed up decisions'

11:10am Tuesday 20th July 2010 in

• Skip social links
• Print
• Email
• Comments(1)

A DIRECTLY-elected mayor with decision-making powers could speed up decisions and liven up local politics.

That’s the view of Phil Heath, the current deputy mayor.

He said: “It could bring enormous opportunities. You will get rapid decisions from someone facing the public saying what he or she is going to do and you could halve the number of borough councillors.”

Cllr Heath, of Basingstoke Community Party and a former leader of the Conservative group, was blocked from becoming the ceremonial mayor this year, despite being the next in line.

His Conservative opponents said it was because of his alleged breaches of the councillors’ code of conduct.

He said the rumpus meant the post of Mayor of Basingstoke and Deane had already been politicised.

Liberal Democrat group leader Cllr Gavin James said the leader-and-cabinet model already seemed to work fairly well, so he was not in favour of an elected mayor.

He said: “None of these changes is what I really want.

The way to improve is to get the public more involved. An elected mayor would be expensive with more elections and campaigns.”

Labour group leader Cllr Laura James, said the legislation requiring the consultation was from a different era before the recesssion.

She said: “This is not a priority for the people of Basingstoke. I don’t want to be spending time on whether we have ‘a strong leader’ or an elected mayor.”

Conservative council leader Cllr Andrew Finney said he did not want to prejudge the public consultation.

But he added that most in his group probably favoured the leader-andcabinet model.

He said: “It probably is more democratic.

Having an elected mayor focuses on an individual rather than people working together to serve the community. National politics has moved too far down the route of personality.”

Independent Councillor Martin Biermann said: “These plans are another gimmick. I don’t see what having a pumped-up personality as an elected mayor would do for us and I don’t detect any groundswell of opinion for it.”