Busy busy busy so no time to blog, but I did spot this article from the Local Government Chronicle. The Conservatives are proposing that elected mayors in England should be allowed to delete the office of Chief Executive in their authorities, and run the show administratively themselves. It seems, though, that even the people who stand to gain more power from the move aren’t convinced. The LGC asked half the serving elected mayors whether they’d want to make use of the power, and not one of those polled said yes.
Selling the plans as part of a “stop town hall waste” policy, the Tories said an “executive mayor” would “take over the role of the chief executive, giving them genuine hands-on power to hire and fire staff, determine the councils’ operational practices and direct local authority spending”.
But the proposal to merge the roles failed to gain traction with mayors, even among some Conservatives. Torbay Council mayor Nick Bye (Con) said: “I doubt if a political mayor would have the skills or knowledge to ‘run the shop’ as well as doing all the decision making and undertaking the community leadership and public roles.”