Bath and North East Somerset Council has announced that a referendum to decide the future form of governance for the Council will be held on Thursday, 10th March 2016, between the hours of 7 a.m. and 10 p.m.

The decision was announced by Jo Farrar, the Council’s Chief Executive and Counting Officer (Returning Officer).

A referendum has to take place because over 5% of electors have requested it via a petition. 6,817 people who signed the petition matched entries on the electoral register. The total number of valid entries required to validate the petition was 6,437. This was the second petition that went in to B&NES Council, after the first failed to gain enough entries in the correct format.

Local Conservatives, who are currently in charge of the Council administration, say that an Elected Mayor would be ‘more costly and less accountable’. Under the proposed system, a Mayor would replace the present set-up by which a Council Leader and Cabinet is chosen from among the existing local Councillors. Conservatives have said that changing to an Elected Mayor system would simply create additional unnecessary expense at a time when the authority is having to find £38 million worth of budget savings.

They have also warned that a Mayor would be less accountable to residents and would reduce the ability of local Councillors to get things done for their communities by giving them less say over the way in which Council Tax is spent.

Councillor Paul Myers, the Mayor of Midsomer Norton, who is leading the Conservative campaign against an Elected Mayor for B&NES, said: “We’ve looked carefully at the idea of a B&NES Mayor and concluded that it simply would not be right for somewhere like Bath and North East Somerset. It would mean having one person in charge of an area that stretches all the way from Bath to the Mendip Hills, with numerous towns and villages in between, each with their own distinct identity and needs.

“Experience elsewhere has shown that Elected Mayors cost more, listen less and simply create an additional layer of expensive bureaucracy. Throughout the country, the prospect of having an Elected Mayor has been rejected by voters in the vast majority of referendums that have taken place.

“The system has been shown to have no clear benefits, but many costs and risks, and I believe that B&NES residents will also say ‘no thanks’ to the prospect of having an Elected Mayor in March.”

Campaigners in favour of an Elected Mayor for B&NES say that their

comparisons have pointed out that 92% of English voters do not know who their Council Leader is, whereas Mayors are highly visible, because they are chosen by and accountable to the whole electorate. They claim that a Mayor can draw his or her Cabinet from the most able Councillors regardless of party (and also less of them), whereas a Council leader will appoint only fellow party members.

Campaigners have also objected to figures which imply that a Mayor is inevitably more expensive than a Council Leader. “The Mayor can choose to have a small Cabinet, so the cost of Cabinet Members’ allowances is cut,” said Stephen Taylor, Secretary of the Mayor for B&NES campaign. “In addition, Councils with Mayors need fewer officers, because decision-making is sharper. For example, Bristol City has saved £300,000 a year in top management roles since the Mayor was elected. Some Councils with an Elected Mayor, such as Leicester, have scrapped the Chief Executive job entirely.” It is estimated the post of Chief Executive in B&NES costs around £180,000 a year.

Anyone interested in discussing the campaign in favour of a Mayor for B&NES further can email: [email protected]

The full notice of the referendum can be viewed online at: www.bathnes.gov.uk

/elections and in Council offices.

You can vote in the referendum if you are registered to vote in Bath and North East Somerset, you are eighteen or over on the day of the referendum and you are a British citizen, or a citizen of another European Union country, or a qualifying Commonwealth citizen. Qualifying Commonwealth citizens are people who have leave (permission) to enter or remain in the UK. British citizens living overseas cannot vote in the referendum.

If you have recently moved, or are not currently on the electoral register, you can register online at: www.gov.uk/register-to-vote. Alternatively, you can contact Council Connect on: 01225 477333 to request an electoral registration form.

Poll cards with information about the voting arrangements will be sent out to registered electors in advance of the referendum. You can vote in person at your allocated polling station, by post or by proxy (by appointing someone else to vote on your behalf).

This will be a big decision for voters, as the outcome will be binding, and legally, the new arrangement would not be able to be reversed without another referendum, which cannot take place for a minimum of ten years. The result will also be irrespective of voter turnout, as there is no minimum turnout threshold. If the vote is ‘yes’ for a directly elected Mayor, then an election will be held in future to determine who will take up the post.