‘Eye-watering’ £4m bill to elect E Mids’ first regional mayor
THE election for the inaugural East Midlands Mayor will cost an “eye-watering” £4m, accounting for a sizeable chunk of the new combined authority’s annual budget.
Papers for the first meeting of the East Midlands Combined County Authority
– led by Nottingham and Nottinghamshire, Derby, Derbyshire – detail the super council’s annual budget of £56m.
They say that the cost of the upcoming election for a mayor to oversee the authority on Thursday, May 2, will cost £4m – 7% of its annual interim spending budget.
The inaugural meeting will be held on Wednesday, March 20, at Chesterfield Town Hall and will be streamed online, with the chosen venue for each meeting set to rotate around the combined Nottinghamshire and Derbyshire patch.
The cost of the election represents the third largest item of spending forecast for the next year, behind £6.3m on staff and £32.7m on “supplies, services and subcontractors”.
Each of the five mayoral candidates was asked for their thoughts on the cost of the election.
The five candidates, alphabetically by surname, as they will appear on the bal- lot, are: Frank Adlington-stringer (Green Party), Ben Bradley (Conservative), Alan Graves (Reform UK), Matt Relf (Independent) and Claire Ward (Labour).
Councillor Graves, a Derby councillor and the city’s mayor, said: “There is no justification. There was no referendum asking the people if they wanted another elected politician in the form of a mayor and a new authority that will cost millions every year. I believe the people of Derbyshire and Nottinghamshire should get the referendum they deserve.” Councillor Relf, an Ashfield district councillor and executive lead for growth, regeneration and planning, said: “If we had a government that trusted and funded local authorities properly and if our MPS worked together better to promote investment into our region then we would have no need of this new combined authority and the additional funding could have come down to existing authorities. “However, the current government is following the path of regional mayors and with the right mayor it does present a fantastic opportunity for the region, with the ability to properly overhaul investment in roads, transport, skills, business support, etc.
“The eyewatering £4 million price tag for the election is something the architects of devolution should answer to as with better collaboration with existing local authorities this money could have gone straight on the delivery of much-needed services.”
The candidates for the Green Party, Conservatives and Labour have not responded as of this article’s publication.
The combined authority budget, which totals £56m, is propped up by £38m in annual funding from Government and a number of Government grants for key projects, including brownfield land regeneration, transport, skills and housing.
A report on the budget shows the authority will have £10m left over to spend following its current spending.
The Government has committed to give the new authority £1.14bn over 30 years (£38m per year), alongside a transport funding pot of £1.5 billion, £53m for adult education and £18m for housing, brownfield land and other investments – all split over multiple years.
Further reports to next week’s inaugural meeting show a number of executive officers are to be appointed to interim roles.
Mark Rogers, currently interim chief officer of the East Midlands Devolution Programme, is set to be interim head of paid service. Mark Kenyon, currently director of finance at Derbyshire County Council, will be the interim Section 73 officer – the main financial adviser.
Jodie Townsend, currently interim governance lead for the East Midlands Devolution Programme, is set to be both the interim monitoring officer and senior information risk owner. Permanent appointments to each of these roles would be approved by the authority board at a later date.
An appointment panel would include whoever is elected mayor and a representative from each of the member councils – likely to be the leaders.
A further four roles would be appointed by this panel, including a chief executive, executive director of inclusive growth, executive director of place and executive director of resources.
The eye-watering £4m price tag for the election is something the architects of devolution should answer to.
Matt Relf