Ben Howlett, Member of Parliament for Bath, last week asked a question to the Leader of the House of Commons, Chris Grayling, about the concerns of a BANES Elected Mayor in Parliament.
Ben asked the Leader of the Commons: “In other referendum news, I know that the Leader of the House will be paying close attention to the outcome of the referendum on the Mayor of Bath and North East Somerset, which is coming up on 10 March.
“It is opposed by me and my hon. Friend the Member for North East Somerset, as well as by pretty much every other local party.
“Will my right hon. Friend join me in opposing a Mayor for Bath and North East Somerset, and consider having a debate in Government time on its huge cost and its impact on reducing democratic accountability?”
Mr . Grayling responded: “I am sure that I could not do a better job of influencing the people of Bath and Somerset than my hon. Friend, so I will leave it to him to make that case.”
Upon leaving the Chamber, Ben commented: “Next week the people of BANES face an important decision that could have a serious and detrimental impact for local government and democracy.
“Elected mayors drive up an already inflated cost of politics and are far less accountable than the current Council Leader and Cabinet Model.
“Elected mayors might work for large metropolitan centres like Bristol, but it is simply inappropriate for somewhere as geographically diverse as BANES.”
“Following on from the advice of the Leader of the Commons, I will continue to make the case to my constituents that an elected mayor is not right for BANES.”
2 Comments
spuff
Monday 7th March, 2016 at 11:44I love the way Howlett bangs on about democracy and geographical diversity of BaNES, whilst championing building on Green Belt land outside of his own constituency, despite opposition from all politicians representing the 63% of adults that did not vote Tory (and even some of them) at the council or general election.
AdamReynolds
Monday 7th March, 2016 at 10:55Slightly biased in that I am intending to stand for Mayor ( http://www.voteadamreynolds.uk) however one of the key things an independent Mayor can do is build a cabinet from across all parties. In BaNES you have 65 councillors, some who would be more effective than others in certain positions within the cabinet, due to their experience and passion for an area. Let’s be real.
Seven cabinet members and seven cabinet assistants, Were chosen from the winning 37 conservative councillors. You discarded 28 very capable councillors from your selection process. That is not to say that you should not be selecting your cabinet from the winning party, but I personally feel, that a cabinet should be made up of the best people for the job. We need a “Cabinet of the best”.