City council sets date for referendum on adopting directly elected mayor

Plymouth City Council is set to hold a referendum on adopting a directly elected mayor model of governance.

The city's electorate will vote on ditching its current leader and cabinet model in favour of a mayor in July after 10,800 people signed a petition earlier in the year asking for a referendum to be held.

The council's explanatory page on the upcoming referendum said that should an elected mayor model be chosen, "the council is effectively locked into that model for ten years from the date of the referendum and may only change it at a subsequent referendum".

Some councillors raised questions over the cost of holding the referendum, which is estimated to be up to £410,000, during a debate on Monday (28 April).

Others meanwhile questioned the success of directly elected mayor systems, pointing to councils such as Bristol, Liverpool and Torbay, which have voted to abolish their own mayoral systems in recent years.

Angus Forbes, who led the campaign for the referendum, said the cost of the referendum would be the "best money a Plymouth taxpayer could ever spend to change to a successful system of direct democracy", according to a BBC report.

The businessman also argued that the current system failed to grow the economy.

Adam Carey