Role of elected Mayor to be scrapped in Liverpool

The role of elected mayor is to be scrapped in Liverpool - despite coming out as the favourite option in a consultation of city residents.

At a meeting last night (Wednesday 21 July), the council voted to remove the role of city mayor and replace it with a council leader and cabinet executive.

The change will come in next May when an all-out election is held.

The role of elected city mayor was created in 2012 and held by Joe Anderson until he decided not to stand for re-election last year after his arrest as part of a fraud investigation.

It is currently held by Labour's Joanne Anderson, no relation to her predecessor, who became the first black female mayor last May.

As well as having an elected city mayor, Liverpool also has a Lord Mayor and metro-mayor of the Liverpool City Region, Steve Rotheram.

The council held a consultation with residents to ask whether they would prefer the city to be run by an elected mayor, a committee or a council leader with cabinet.

The consultation was responded to by 11,519 people, which the meeting heard is about 4% of the electorate.

Of those who responded, 40.9% wanted to keep the role of mayor, 32.9% preferred a committee model and 23.6% opted for council leader.

At the meeting, Liberal councillor Steve Radford said: "The logic of having a consultation and then (opting) for the least popular option on a poor turnout is, I think, just taking the total mickey out of the electorate."

However, councillors voted to approve the new model of governance by a majority of 51 to 18.

In Bristol, voters chose to scrap the role of elected mayor after a referendum on the way the city is run was held in May.

But, in Liverpool, the idea of a referendum was ruled out by the council on cost grounds after it was estimated to cost £450,000, compared to a £120,000 consultation.

The authority is currently being partially overseen by Government-appointed commissioners after an inspection report last year found allegations of bullying, intimidation, "dubious" deals and "jobs for the boys".

The inspection, by Max Caller, followed the arrest of Mr Anderson and others on suspicion of fraud, bribery, corruption and witness intimidation.

Earlier this week, chief executive Tony Reeves stood down with immediate effect.

A second report from the commissioners was due to be submitted to the Department for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities in June but there is no date yet for its publication.