A Mayor for Cardiff?

Should Cardiff have a directly-elected mayor?
(Pic : Cardiff City Hall)

It's a question that could be put to electors in the capital if a new campaign succeeds in getting the right number of signatures to trigger a local referendum on the issue.

I've come around to the idea of directly-elected mayors (Local Sovereignty III – The Municipality) as a way of promoting and developing civic and political leaders, as well as breaking the power unelected executive officers have over decision-making processes – as exemplified down the years in Carmarthenshire and following on from what myself and others mentioned earlier this week.
In Cardiff, however, they're dealing with a very different issue, as the problems are caused by personality clashes and factionalism amongst councillors themselves, not officers. We all know Cardiff's Labour group has been in the grip of serious internal strife for several years (Local Intelligence), and their leadership of Cardiff Council has been roundly criticised by people from within and outside said group.

Directly-elected mayors could deal with both issues. Having an elected mayor who's "above it all", but still subject to the will of the electorate, might go some way to focusing minds and bring some measure of stability, instead of leaving it to dictatorial chief executives or the internal troubles of a single dysfuctional party or fractured opposition.

Any power in a democracy should be backed by a mandate from voters. We're used to a parliamentary system of government in the UK – where the leader of the largest party/parties form the executive – but at local level, where the workload is more strategic than legislative/ideological, it's probably better to have a single person to guide those strategies and act as a figurehead.

Greater London has a directly-elected mayor - as do several other cities in England, like Liverpool - Greater Manchester will too.

More locally, Bristol voted for a directly-elected mayor via a referendum in 2011 and the first mayor, George Ferguson, has made something of an impact. He's leading the creation of a metro scheme in the Bristol area, has expanded 20mph zones and backed the construction of a new arena. He'll be up for re-election in May, so the electorate in Bristol will have an opportunity to back him, or sack him by choosing someone different.

The campaign isn't due to officially launch until February 12^th, but the website for the provisional yes campaign is up.

There's no detail on precisely how a mayor would be elected or what the governance arrangements would entail - I'm presuming that will come later. You've got to assume they're aiming for something similar to Bristol : the mayor acts as leader of the cabinet and appoints councillors to that cabinet, the mayor would also draft the budget and guide overall strategy and decision-making in the city.

There are dangers in entrusting so much power in a single individual, but as long as the checks and balances are in place, it's a damned side better than having a Carmarthenshire situation where an unelected bureaucrat holds the executive power – whether officially or de facto.

It would finally bring an end to "officer-led" local authorities, and everyone in a county would have the opportunity to elect the person calling the shots, instead of leaving it to a few thousand voters in a single ward and the terrible electoral system we use for local government.

The biggest hurdles facing the campaign are, firstly, generating enthusiasm – it's probably going to be very difficult to get people in Cardiff excited about yet another "bloody politician" in a year that's going to see two elections and ahead of both a (to be confirmed) EU referendum and local elections in 2017.

That leads nicely in to the next problem. As mentioned earlier, in order to trigger a mayoral referendum – which could be held as early as this autumn – the campaign has to secure 24,647 signatures, or 10% of Cardiff's electorate. That's no small task.

Another big question is what would happen once local government is reformed? If Cardiff merges with the Vale of Glamorgan, would Vale residents end up having a Cardiffian mayor forced on them? In my opinion all of the post-reform local authorities should have a directly-elected mayor anyway, but I don't think the campaign have  factored this in.

As I don't live in Cardiff I won't be able to sign the petition when its launched in February. But if you do live in Cardiff and agree with the proposal – or simply want a proper debate on the issue – then it's one worth keeping an eye on.