Democracy group is against more directly-elected mayors

10:00am Friday 24th November 2006

A NEWHAM campaign group is fighting Government plans to introduce more elected mayors across the UK.

The Government has published a White Paper that proposes to shake up local government, including bringing in more directly elected mayors.

But the Newham Campaign for Democracy, which is pushing for an end to Newham's elected mayoral system, wants to see the White Paper altered.

The group's John Saunders said: "Ideally we want to keep open the option of residents choosing what system they want to be governed under.

"If that is not available, there should be checks and balances to ensure the system is able to respond to what the community wishes."

The group is currently working on a detailed response to the Government's plans and it hopes to get them changed.

Mr Saunders said: "I think we can get something changed, particularly as there seems to be a lot of opposition from other areas as well."

The Newham Campaign for Democracy, formed in September, supports replacing the directly elected mayor with a leader elected by councillors.

The cross-party group believes Newham Council has developed into an undemocratic "gravy train".

They say poorly drafted legislation has allowed a situation in which half of Newham's councillors are paid extra allowances as executive advisers or cabinet members.

This, according to the group, is making it more difficult for there to be genuine democratic debate on the council.

There are 12 directly elected mayors in the UK, and there have been calls in a number of areas (including Doncaster, Hartlepool, Lewisham and Stoke-on-Trent) for the post to be abolished.

Mr Saunders said: "The Government's White Paper is about increasing local communities' powers, but the reality is the community will not have much of a say in how it is governed under the plans."

But many believe that bringing in more directly elected mayors will strengthen local democracy.

Conservative Life Peer Lord Bruce-Lockhart said last month: "It is time for Whitehall to decentralise, devolve and deregulate to set people free of bureaucracy and improve the lives of millions of people.

"This also means that council leaders must accept that the buck stops with them when things go wrong."

A Newham Labour group spokesman said that voters in Newham overwhelmingly endorsed the principle of a mayor in a referendum and then endorsed Sir Robin Wales' record in May's mayoral election.

He said: "The evidence suggests the people of Newham like direct accountability and that they like the current mayor."