Owl wonders if this week’s story about Labour’s proposal to scrap city mayors in favour of multi authority ones (aka mayoral strategic authorities) as part of its devolution deal, gives us a glimpse of what might lie in store.

Under Labour’s plan only strategic mayoral authorities will get serious devolved powers and funds. Unitary Plymouth now finds itself in the front line.

The immediate context is that a wealthy “businessman, entrepreneur and philanthropist” from Australia, Angus Forbes who came to Plymouth in 2019, has garnered sufficient signatures to require Plymouth City Council to hold a referendum on July 17 on whether or not to elect a mayor for the city. 

Labour have now frozen that process (see below), though Forbes has indicated he will fight the decision through the courts. Reform UK’s Plymouth branch has thrown its support behind the referendum (if it is held). 

If the referendum passes, Forbes has indicated that he will be a candidate.

Worth noting that Torbay voted to abandon its mayor in 2019. Similarly, Bristol abandoned its mayor in 2022.

The Plymouth referendum proposal has cross party opposition under the banner: “Plymouth knows better”

It has also got a bit nasty with Police issuing a Community Resolution Order against an individual following City Leader Tudor Evans claims to have received “serious threats of violence”.

The government preference for strategic mayoral authorities is for these to have a population in excess of 1.5 million. I.e. something bigger in scale than geographical Devon. 

Candidates will need huge resources or, organisational or political backing, to campaign over such a dispersed area.

In Owl’s opinion the examples of choosing Crime Commissioners and Leaders of Local Enterprise Partnerships are not encouraging. No inspired leader has emerged. The result has been mediocracy.

City mayors to be scrapped in Plymouth 

Alison Stephenson, local democracy reporter www.radioexe.co.uk 

A question mark hangs over whether a referendum will take place in Plymouth next month after the government confirmed that city mayors will be scrapped if a new act of parliament is passed.

Minister of state for local government and English devolution Jim McMahon said in a statement this week that Labour wants regulations to “freeze processes that are underway” as it plans to simplify local government.

He said the 13 directly elected local council mayors currently in place across the country would continue but no new ones would be created.

“We must ensure precious time and resources are not spent moving Plymouth to a new governance arrangement while parliament is considering legislation that would prevent new council mayors,” he said.

But whilst any election for a directly elected mayor in Plymouth has been delayed by a year to 2027 to allow the English Devolution Bill to pass through parliament, the referendum to decide whether Plymouth residents want a mayor instead of a council leader and cabinet could still go ahead on 17 July.

The government’s move is to avoid confusion caused by establishing new regional mayors for strategic authorities which are set to be at the top of a forthcoming change to local government structure.

These authorities would oversee a small number of unitary councils in Devon  responsible for all local services, and the current two tier structure of county and district councils would disappear.

The Mayor for Plymouth campaign, spearheaded by businessman Angus Forbes, got enough support from the public to trigger a referendum at the cost of £410,000.

Mr Forbes said it wanted strong accountable leadership directly chosen by all Plymouth voters with politics taking a back seat.

Earlier this year he said his interpretation of the white paper was that Plymouth could have an elected mayor provided it is part of a strategic authority.

A ‘coalition’ group called Plymouth Knows Better was set up to urge the public to vote against it in the referendum.

It said it welcomed the confirmation today from the minister that no new city mayors will be created.

“This decision confirms that the government won’t create any new city mayors – making Plymouth’s referendum not just unnecessary, but now entirely redundant,” it said

A spokesperson added: “Local people will be rightly angry that public money is being spent on a vanity project that never had any future, all because the lead petitioner and millionaire Mr Forbes wouldn’t take no for an answer.

“The cross-party Plymouth Knows Better coalition has, from the start, tried to inform people that this position was being scrapped – and today’s news proves we were right.”

Plymouth and Sutton MP Luke Pollard said the money should be spent on filling potholes or looking after children in care.

The Mayor for Plymouth campaign has not yet commented on the minister’s statement.