Bristol SCRAPS Mayor system
Marvin Rees had previously announced he'd be standing down in 2024
Last updated 6th May 2022
Bristol has voted to scrap its current Mayor system, in favour of a committee system.
A referendum was held on the position after city councillors voted back in December, saying the system was undemocratic because it gave them no say in how Bristol is run.
There was a reasonably low turnout - with just 29% of eligible people going to the polls. Of the voters, 59% opted to scrap the current system.
'I really hope my fears of the committee system are not warranted'
Current Mayor Marvin Rees, who represents Labour, spoke to us at the count at the Oasis Academy in Brislington overnight and said "I really hope that my fears of the committee system are not warranted and that it proves to be successful.
"Because of the scale of the challenges we face right now coming off the back of the pandemic, dealing with Brexit and the climate emergency - that requires a city that is focussed on making decisions and not focussed on internal wrangling."
'Unhealthy concentration of power'
The most vocal opposition to the mayoral model in Bristol has come from within the council itself.
Opposition councillors, in particular those representing the Greens and Liberal Democrats, claim it has taken democracy away from citizens because the councillors residents have voted in are unable to do much to influence policy, unless they sit on the mayor's cabinet.
Carla Denyer, a Green council member for Clifton Down who is also co-leader of the party nationally, has repeatedly stressed her view that the mayoral system "is an unhealthy concentration of power in the hands of one person".
Bristol's Labour MP Kerry McCarthy wanted to keep the position of the independently elected mayor and has been quoted as saying the old committee system has been "tried, tested and failed", while in an opinion piece recently written for Bristol 24/7, Labour's Ellie King, who sits on Mr Rees' cabinet, said abolishing the mayor would relegate Bristol "to the status of a parish council".
Current Mayor Marvin Rees previously announced he would be standing down in 2024, and today's result now means he won't be replaced.