The issue of an elected mayor for Bristol has been put squarely onto the public agenda as a result of a high profile event in the city.
The government has identified Bristol as one of 12 core cities across the UK to lead Britain’s economic recovery – with four of them, Bristol, Leeds, Birmingham and Liverpool, being awarded a referendum in 2012 on whether to elect their own mayor.
But with few people in the city understanding what exactly an elected mayor would do, Bristol Festival of Ideas and a group of interested business people staged a day-long event under the 2011 Bristol Ideas Forum banner.
Titled Should Bristol Have an Elected Mayor, the event attracted 200 of the city’s top influencers, from business people, academics, community activists to politicians and journalists.
The day, described by one Tweeter as “inspirational”, included panel discussions with local MPs and city councillors; addresses and lectures by specialists in cities, talks on leadership and economic development from across the UK and a keynote address by former Mayor of London and 2012 election contender Ken Livingstone.
He said: “Bristol metropolitan district should have real power devolved from Whitehall.” But he also warned that an elected mayor could lead to a lack of accountability.
Another potential problem was highlighted by city council leader Barbara Janke, who warned that an elected mayor could cause problems with neighbouring authorities. “It’s new powers that are needed for Bristol, not an elected mayor,” she said.
An elected mayor, unlike Bristol’s Lord Mayor, would be chosen directly by the people of Bristol through a local ballot.
He or she would have the power to co-ordinate and lead city-wide initiatives, as well as being a bridge between business and policy-makers, and an ambassador for the city and region.
For local businesswoman and driving force behind the Bristol Elected Mayor campaign team (www.bristolmayor.org) Jaya Chakrabarti, it’s a no-brainer.
She believes an elected mayor could be transformative for business in the Greater Bristol area and the South-West, pointing out that the existing four unitary authorities don’t easily co-operate under a single banner for the greater good, leaving infrastructure projects such as transport and education chronically underdeveloped in the area.
“We’ve got an economic recovery to drive. And it’s not made any easier by the current arrangements,” she said. “The Local Enterprise Partnership (LEP) is making some progress, but it’s not fast enough.
“The coalition government is offering Bristol this referendum as a way of getting things moving and I think it’s a chance we should take, as a city and as a community. An elected mayor would be about identity as much as power. It’s not a silver bullet, but it’s a good start.
“I’ve been in business for 12 years in Bristol and the same criticisms come round regularly – that somehow, although we’re a great city with fantastic creativity and buzz, we don’t punch above our weight. The same issues keep weighing us down: poverty, inequality, education, transport.
“That’s the reason every single person here today is excited – because we can all see that the leadership needs to be stronger. I think an elected mayor could give us that.”
She also pointed out that the government is offering greater powers for the city in exchange for going down the elected mayor leadership model.
“If that's the price we need to pay it's actually a pretty small one because it's the leadership model that is wrong, not the leaders,” she added.
A cross-party panel of Bristol MPs – Stephen Williams (LibDem), Charlotte Leslie (Conservative) and Kerry McCarthy (Labour) –unanimously agreed. A panel of Bristol city council’s political party leaders, however, was unable to reach an agreement.
City architect and businessman George Ferguson, former Institute of Directors chair Nick Sturge and Happy City director Mike Zeidler were just three among many in the audience who supported the idea of an elected mayor.
In a lively debate about who gets to vote, many in the auditorium pointed out that electing a mayor would also be a way of bridging the city’s political and social divide between born and bred Bristolians and incomers, uniting the whole city in a common goal.
Professor Colin Copus of De Montfort University in Leicester said: “It would help business. It’s a potentially huge mandate. It’s about soft power – negotiating with business, understanding economic regeneration.
“An elected mayor has to keep business happy, and the community happy, and connect with the government and the council. And it opens the doors to pots of government money.”
The referendum for an elected mayor of Bristol will be in May 2012.
To view the debate as a webcast go to: http://www.bristol.gov.uk/page/elected-mayor-bristol-debate
Follow the debate on Twitter at hashtag #bristolmayor
A full list of speakers and topics is available at http://www.ideasfestival.co.uk/?p=1993
