Stoke scraps elected mayor

Voters in Stoke-on-Trent have become the first in the country to choose to scrap the city’s directly elected mayor.

Stoke-on-Trent city council became unique in England when it adopted the elected mayor and council manager system of governance in 2002. Under the system, the mayor and council manager – or chief executive – held decision making power.

The decisions would then be scrutinised by all councillors. But that governance model was scrapped under the 2007 Local Government and Public Involvement in Health Act, which comes into effect in May 2009.

That prompted a referendum on 23 October which gave Stoke’s voters a choice of a mayor and cabinet system, or a leader and cabinet system, which the council used until 2002.

They voted overwhelmingly – 21,231 to 14,592 votes – for the latter, as did council members before the public vote. The voting turn-out was 19.23%.

The council’s second mayor, Mark Meredith (Lab), who was elected in May 2005, will continue in post until May 2009.

The elected mayor system was introduced through the Local Government Act 2000.

When Mr Meredith leaves office, there will be 12 elected mayors left across the country, including London’s Boris Johnson.

Stoke’s full city council will meet on 13 November to make a formal decision to implement the proposals.

A new constitution will be put to a meeting of the council on 29 January, and a new leader will be chosen by a majority vote of members in May.

Local government minister John Healey this week launched an independent governance transition board to support the council through the interim period and oversee the changes.

Mr Meredith said: “We welcome the appointment of the transition board and look forward to working with them.

“We, as the city council, have committed ourselves to radical change in the way the city is governed.”