E Will he? Won’t he? Mayor days are over but what of Gordon?

SO will or won’t he? It’s the question a lot of people are asking. Will current Torbay elected mayor Gordon Oliver be standing as a candidate in next May’s locals elections? If he does it will have to be as a councillor as the mayoral system of running the resort officially comes to an end. He also may have less chance of standing on an official Conservative ticket than Jeremy Corbyn.

Mr Oliver certainly has experience in the locker. He marked his 40th year as a politician on September 1 this year and has served in public office under the old Torbay county borough and district council days as well as being a county councillor and directly-elected mayor in two spells while under the Bay’s current unitary status - despite himself being no fan of the mayoral way of doing things.

But during that time there have been a series of fallings-out with his own true blue colleagues within the council ruling Tory group.

It hasn’t gone down well even with the Tory party at a national level. It hasn’t done Torbay’s reputation any favours either.

But Mr Oliver isn’t saying he is ready for the armchair and slippers just yet. And he says age will not come into any decision he makes.

He says: “It is not age that is crucial. It is the person’s ability. You will have to watch this space.”

His partner, Linda Hill, has only recently decided to put her feet up after years at the helm of the Torbay Hospitality Association. Will she have a say in what he decides to do? He says, respectfully of course: “I have not asked her. I don’t have to ask anybody.”

And what about politics and the mayoral system? He says: “Elected mayors in this country have never been popular and still aren’t. They cramp the style of elected members.”

He hasn’t found himself exactly welcome at group meetings but he says: “I am still a member of the Conservative party and have been since I was 14.”

And he claimed: “Conservative groups do not like elected mayors. When they re-drew the group rules nationally elected mayors were not considered. There is nothing in the Conservative group rules for the whole of the country that recognise elected mayors. The rules do not allow me being a member of the group.

“How could I have been banned from something of which I couldn’t be a member in the first place?”

He says the mayoral system may have proved to be more successful if the Bay - and Devon for that matter - had been encouraged to work with other neighbouring councils to compete with the giant authorities in the North and Midlands where millions and millions of government funding has ended up.

He said the secret would have been to design one system that would have worked for all especially with the government at the time encouraging ‘super’ mayors

He believed that Torbay may have missed out because it failed to look a the ‘bigger picture’.

“It is partly to do with the politics down here, although not totally,” he says.

And talking of money, mayor Oliver says: “The challenge beyond my time will be trying to find another £15.7million in cuts for 2021/2022 after saving £80million in the past eight years.

“If I was in the driving seat I could not find that amount of money.”

One of his main hobby horses at the moment is the state of the Bay’s roads. He has asked Torbay and Brixham MPs Kevin Foster and Sarah Wollaston for help in securing more government funding for repairs.

He has written to both: “May I suggest you help us here in the Bay to make a bid for £3million for next year’s capital funding from central government to make a start on bringing back some of the 500 roads which need substantial repair.”

Mr Oliver says: “I have had a positive response from Sarah. I am getting a bid together for her which she will lead on the roads.

“We have had a settlement from the government – Devon got £19million. Torbay got £646,000. Torbay is one quarter the size of Devon but its road funding is calculated differently to Torbay and we miss out on the formula as it is.

“Torbay is in a dire state. It is a deterrent for investment. It will look like a Third World country if we are not careful.”

Here’s another hint of the politics when he says: “I have written to Kevin Foster twice. He says that he only deals with David Thomas as leader of the Conservative group. David Thomas represents the councillors that he leads. I represent the entire council.”

Mr Foster, meanwhile, welcomed the extra government funding for the road repairs. He said the amounts handed down depended on the lengths of highway covered and not population size.

He said the mayoral system works but only when the bigger, key issues such as transport and schools are on the agenda. He said: “Torbay has been a case in point where it does not work well with the mayor dealing with grass cutting and bin collections. They are better dealt with by the elected councilors. They are able to engage with their community.”

He was clear about the future saying: “Myself and Dave Thomas have had a big discussion. I suggested that Gordon Oliver work together with Dave Thomas because next May there will be no mayoral role.

“It is about having a vision, having a plan.”

And that is where the quandary of having Gordon Oliver as mayor lies.

Another one of his latest battles is over the council’s official Mace which usually takes pride of place at council meetings but failed to show recently. He is tabling a motion: “That this council needs to make the necessary arrangements to ensure that in future the Mace is always present at all future council meetings. “It is a long and established tradition and retains the linkage the authority has to the Monarchy.

“If officers do not have the money or the time to undertake the task I’m sure that elected members would be delighted to accept this role as part of their responsibilities.”

He said it was being reported that this was down to his budget cuts but he insisted: “If it is the proposed revenue budget for next year I’m certainly not aware of it nor do I support it being included.”

The Mace will be of significance to some people but it won’t exactly be a game changer in reshaping the Bay’s future.

Still, come next May that won’t be Gordon Oliver’s problem. Or will it? Only in

Torbay!