Mayor for Glasgow? Call to debate new city role
CALLS have been made for Glasgow and its surrounding council areas to start debating about the region having its own mayor.
City Region Cabinet committee member Patrick McGlinchey said the cabinet should start thinking about bringing in a directly elected mayor or face losing out to other parts of the UK.
The deputy leader of West Dunbartonshire Council has since said the idea merits serious debate as having an elected figurehead, representing the area on the global stage, would make Greater Glasgow economically stronger.
He said: “There is a potential for us to be left behind when it comes to growing economically.
“Other cities will have mayors and you will see their elected representatives going out and making direct deals with other cities all over the world.
“Without that we could be missing out on major economic advantages other cities will soon have the capacity to do. It’s time to have the debate. Comparative cities are now doing this and I think it’s right to ask ‘why not Glasgow?’.”
The councillor’s calls come as the people of the regions encompassing Greater Manchester, Liverpool, West Midlands, West of England, Sheffield, Cambridgeshire and Peterborough and Tees Valley get set to vote in mayoral elections on May 4.
These cities will join London in having a directly elected metropolitan mayor for the first time.
Sadiq Khan is the third London mayor since the role was created in 2000 after the London devolution referendum.
However Councillor McGlinchey stressed the importance of building evidence to bring such a position to a combination of Greater Glasgow wards. As well as bringing in a mayor, a whole raft of change would need to take place in how local councils in the area are structured.
The newly elected mayor would be representing a third of Scotland’s population and economy.
He added: “These other UK city regions are Greater Glasgow’s competition for investment, jobs, events and visitors.
“And Greater Glasgow has to stay competitive.
“On that basis, it’s right that we debate the idea of a metro mayor for Greater Glasgow and, as the mayoralties of Manchester, Liverpool and Birmingham develop, that we follow the evidence.
“Any move towards a metro mayor should go hand-in-glove with downwards devolution to local communities.
“The realities of globalisation mean that city regions having a voice on the global stage is vital but it would be best combined with wider local government reforms and local empowerment.”
He went on to say that many people outside Glasgow City Council’s boundaries, in the likes of Clydebank, Giffnock and Rutherglen, identify themselves as Glaswegian – meaning a basis for an encompassing mayor-figure is already there.
He added it would have to be proven if the change would be in the economic interest of the citizens. The councils of Glasgow, West and East Dunbartonshire, North and South Lanarkshire, Renfrewshire, East Renfrewshire and Inverclyde that are involved in the £1.13billion City Deal project would be overseen by an elected mayor.
Like London, the mayor of such a region would have the last word on investments in to major infrastructure projects. COUNCILS should be handed full control over local taxation, including the ability to scrap levies and introduce new ones, a think tank has proposed.
The measure should form part of an overhaul of local governance in Scotland, Reform Scotland said.
New constitutional arrangements between local and national government are needed because successive governments have eroded councils’ powers, it argued.
The overhaul, set out in Reform Scotland’s Blueprint For Local Power, would require new legislation which the organisation says should be brought forward before next month’s local elections.
The document states that under the new arrangements, local authorities should be responsible for all areas not specifically reserved to Holyrood, with tasks carried out at “the lowest level practical”.
Councils should provide “clear and transparent” information on their activities to ensure proper local accountability, the thinktank said.
On tax, it states: “The way that local taxation operates at present takes no real account of local priorities because local councillors have no genuine control over local taxation. Although the council tax freeze has been lifted, increases have been capped by the Scottish Government, just as they were in the past by Conservative governments led by Margaret Thatcher.
“The only way local priorities and circumstances can be taken into account is if council tax is fully devolved.”
Reform Scotland believes business rates should be fully devolved to councils, with local authorities also free to implement their own area-specific levies.
A Scottish Government spokesman said: “Local authority responsibilities are very clearly set out, and the focus of the Scottish Government is on encouraging councils to empower communities across the country.
“We have committed to a journey of reform to make local taxation more progressive and local authorities can already reduce non-domestic rates as they choose.”