Bedford Elections: Green party mayoral candidate plans to scrap the role if elected

The Green Party candidate to be Bedford’s next mayor said the current council system needs to be replaced with a more democratic one.

In his manifesto Adrian Spurrell says “it’s time for the cabinet and mayoral approach to go”.

He explained to the Local Democracy Reporting Service that this approach concentrates the council’s powers in the hands of a small group.

“So basically policy comes out from the cabinet and the rest of the council say yes or no,” he said. “Whereas with a more open version you get policy and direction that’s created through dialogue with everybody.

“Societies work best when everybody is actively involved in how that society is run.

“The more you concentrate and take power away from people, or their ability to actively influence, the less they get involved,” he said.

His manifesto claims that “councils everywhere are moving away from [the mayoral system]”, however only a couple have either scrapped their mayor, or started the process to remove the post.

“I think it’s probably more a feature of the people that are attracted to the role,” Adrian said.

“So people probably stand for the role wanting to be mayor and use the mayoral role, rather than wanting to be mayor and seeing actually that part of increasing local democracy is in removing it.

“If you stand to be mayor the chances are you want to be mayor and therefore It’s less likely that people will want to get it removed, and the people who are normally not voted are the ones who want to get rid of it.

“So it’s like turkeys voting for Christmas, so yes, I think there’s a lower likelihood that people who get voted into mayor are going to actively work to remove it, but there are exceptions,” he said.

An alternative is the committee system, which gives minority parties more of a voice. So is Adrian only asking for that because he’s in a minority party?

“No, that’s not it at all, I’m a committed democrat,” he said.

“In any community, you’re going to get a wide range of differing voices and everybody has to fit those voices together in a way that works for the most number of people in the best possible way.

“You can only do that if you allow those voices to be heard along the way.

“The less you give voice to those [groups] the less you hear the people.

“And the more likely you are to make policy or directional decisions that actually aren’t going to be appreciated or valued – you have to bring people with you.

“It works two ways, one is hearing them, and the other is reaching out to people and saying actually I’m not going to do ask and this is why.

“It does give you the onus of going back to those people and saying we’re not going to do what you’ve asked for and here’s why.

“And hopefully people will understand that.

“So it’s just about engaging with people and allowing the voice of Bedfordians to be heard,” he said.

A list of all the candidates standing to be Bedford borough’s next mayor can be found here.