Important democratic change to be debated
Letter below received at 96k today Sunday 27th Feb, 2011.
Whether you agree with Councillor Mick Castle or not let's see if we can show democracy at work in Gt Yarmouth. Get involved, join the debate...
Dear Editor
After 4 months of Council Leaders doing their utmost to wriggle out of having to run an Elected Mayor Referendum in Great Yarmouth it now appears that the Secretary of State has instructed them to fix the date for 5th May - the same day as the local elections and the Government’s own AV voting referendum.
Perhaps now we can have the proper debate about why 70,000 local voters should be able to choose an Elected Mayor to lead the Borough rather than as now have a Leader voted in by as few as 20 Councillors. Over the coming 10 weeks those who are FOR or AGAINST have the chance to make their case in the Letters Columns of the local press.
Up until now opponents have confined themselves to negative comments about the costs of elections and the monies that might be paid to an Elected Mayor for undertaking that role.
The “YES to a Great Yarmouth Elected Mayor” Campaign is a totally non-party-political organisation whose single aim was to collect the thousands of signatures needed to trigger a Referendum and then go on to secure a decisive “YES” vote on 5th May. The Committee of 12 includes supporters of all the main political parties, local business-people and community workers from across the Borough and when an Elected Mayor Election comes some of these same people will very probably be pitted against each other as Candidates. The early indications are that apart from customary candidates from the Conservative, Labour, Lib Dem and UKIP parties that there will be a multitude of independent candidates. That has got to be good for local democracy!
The various candidates will undoubtedly all have different ideas about how the role should be handled and what the priorities should be. It is a full-time job being an Elected Mayor - with a “hands-on” role in steering the work of the Council and in an era of Council shared services initiatives and Government cuts it will be a potent symbol of local sovereignty and the rights of Yarmouth people to determine how things are done here .
My personal view is that the new system will re-invigorate interest in local politics and enable communities and the business community to engage more effectively with the local Council. There is certainly scope for savings to be made - for example the current 39 Councillors could well be reduced to as few as 27 but giving a bigger role to those Councillors as “champions” for their communities. We need to embrace the localism agenda so that people in both the parished and unparished areas of the Borough have appropriate local structures to enable them to shape Council decision-making. Borough Elections could become “all-out “ elections every 4 years thus saving significant amounts on elections (there are currently elections every year in most parts of the Borough).
If your readers would like to know more about the Referendum they can find us on Facebook on the “YES to a Great Yarmouth Elected Mayor” page.
Yours faithfully
Mick Castle
Michael.castle50@ntlworld.com
10 Town Wall Road, Great Yarmouth NR30 1DJ
