Stoke votes to scrap Mayor

[Filuwaúrdjan]

Yes: 21,231 
No: 14,592

Turnout was something like 19%

Stoke had a unique system of local government (Mayor and Council Manager as opposed to Mayor and Cabinet or Leader and Cabinet) widely regarded as an utter failure and responsible (in part) for the absurd fragmentation of local politics in Stoke. Actually, it wasn't even an option on the ballot; people got to chose between the two "normal" systems.
The campaign was nasty and both sides involved in scaremongering (ie; those who wanted the position of elected Mayor abolished went around saying that if the position wasn't abolished, Stoke would end up with a BNP Mayor next year... absurd as while the BNP do have a relatively large group on the council now, all of their councillors were elected with low to very low shares of the vote (IIRC none has ever taken more than 40%) and there's no evidence that they can attract cross-over support. Quite the reverse actually; when proper campaigns have been run against them, they've always lost as turnout increases...).

A new council (based on single member wards IIRC) will be elected next year. I gather that there are plans to give the Leader a fixed term of an absurdly long length.

[Хahar 🤔]

So it's a mayor-manager system of the kind we have in the States?

[Iosif]

Say hello to the BNP.

[Filuwaúrdjan]

So it's a mayor-manager system of the kind we have in the States?

It was (and will be until May), yeah. It's interesting to note that it was a total failure while the same can't be said of the other elected Mayor setup. It might be because it goes so utterly against local government traditions here, it might be because it's inherently undemocratic, it might be both.

Say hello to the BNP.

The BNP are already a force in local politics in parts of Stoke, so there's no need to say "hello" to them. The reduction in seats could hurt them (they tend to win on very low percentages and by small margins and in only parts of the city), the switch to all-out elections (rather than thirds) probably will (in some small way), but the thing that would really damage them would be the return of some form of party discipline to local politics in Stoke. Not that that's especially likely though.

[Хahar 🤔]

The failure is interesting. I guess the idea of running cities like businesses just doesn't fly. Is it related to the lack of any elected government between the local and national level?