£180,000 bill for mayor referendum (From Basingstoke Gazette)

£180,000 bill for mayor referendum

12:00pm Thursday 22nd July 2010 in

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ASKING the people of Basingstoke and Deane to vote on whether or not they want an elected mayor would cost at least £180,000.

As revealed in The Monday Gazette, the public are being asked by Basingstoke and Deane Borough Council to take part in a consultation to help decide the way the council is run.

A law brought in by the last Labour Government means the borough has two options in the way it is run from May 2011.

These are to have a leader elected by councillors, or a directly-elected mayor who can make important decisions.

An online poll launched by The Gazette after Monday’s story shows that 60 per cent of people who voted are in favour of a directly-elected mayor and Cabinet system.

The borough council does not yet know how much this would cost, but Sara Shepherd, communications manager at Basingstoke and Deane Borough Council, said the benchmark for the cost of a public referendum on the issue, based on the figure of the last all-out council election in 2008, is £180,000.

After the council has heard from residents by the August 27 deadline, councillors will make a decision on which system to adopt in October.

If councillors decide that the elected mayor option is their preference, then a referendum will have to be held with all wards in the borough taking part.

Those who voted in The Gazette poll indicated that the elected mayor option was preferable, with 103 people choosing this, compared with 70 voting for a leader elected by councillors.

Councillor Phil Heath, the current deputy mayor, is one of those who is in favour of a directly-elected mayor.

He said: “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.”

Liberal Democrat group leader Cllr Gavin James is among those opposed to the idea. He said: “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 recession. 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 added: “Having an elected mayor focuses on an individual rather than people working together to serve the community.”

And Independent Cllr 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.”