Cheadle and Gatley Lib Dems are moving
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by Lib Dem team on 28 October, 2009
Currently Stockport, like most local authorities, is run on a leader/executive model. The leader of the Council is a councillor (currently Dave Goddard for Stockport; the two previous leaders were Brian Millard and Mark Hunter).
Each year all the councillors elect the leader (in practise, the leader of the Council is chosen by the Lib Dem councillors, who hold a majority of the seats).
The Government has decided all councils have to choose between new systems, and we have to choose before the end of the year.
Option 1 is the “strong leader” model. It’s pretty simlar to what we have today, except the leader is elected for a four year term, or for as long as they’re a councillor if it’s less.
Option 2 is to have an elected mayor. The mayor would be an individual elected by the whole of Stockport to run the council for four years.
That’s about as exciting as it gets, but if you want more detail, take a look at pages 59-65 of the Cheade Area Committee agenda. If you have a preference, let me know what you think – and make sure to include the reasons too, please.
2 Comments
The government is forcing all councls to make this decision.
It is forcing them to choose between just two options both variations oen one theme – instead of power over the council being shared by all councillors, it all goes to one person.
You are not allowed to say “No, I don’t want either of these, I want the traditional British style where no one person has absolute power, instead it is shared”.
Why is it that this abolition of the right of councillors to decide collectively how the council is run has attracted almost no comment in the media? It is an appalling outrage – why aren’t people rioting in the streets over it? To consider how appalling it is, it is as if the right of MPs to vote were taken away – it’sjust the same, except at local level. Would peole think this so boring it isn’t worth mentioning?
They’re not rioting in the streets because they don’t know about it. I doubt they would, even if they did know. Why should they? No politician would pay any attention and they would be met with violence by our heavy-handed police force.
Once again the national government has decided what is good for local government. Why is there no option for the status quo?