(Just corrected the date. I was looking at the wrong year on the TC Calendar)
Out of 21 town councillors, each year, one is elected Mayor and one Deputy Mayor. From as far back as most people remember it has been the next one in line gets elected. But last year there was a shock result when Abingdon returned 11 Conservatives 9 Lib-Dems and 1 Labour councillor to the town council. The Conservatives, with such a small majority, thought that the Mayor’s casting vote was more important than the tradition of next in line.
This year the make up of the council has changed slightly. We do not know if Peter Jones, the current Deputy Mayor, will be able to get there. Peter is well liked by both sides and would have made a very good Mayor – but sadly suffered a stroke.
I have also just read that one Lib-Dem has decided they can no longer remain a Lib-Dem because of the Coalition. So this year there are likely to be 10 Conservatives 8 Lib-Dems 1 Labour and 1 Independent.
The Candidates for Mayor are Monica Lovatt and Samantha Bowring. As individuals they both have done a lot for the town. I would guess it will be 10-10 and then the current Mayor will use his casting vote for Monica.
Then we come to the Deputy Mayor. Again two candidates: Cllr Andrew Todd for the Conservatives, and Cllr Angela Lawrence the ex Lib-Dem Independent. Again it is likely to be 10:10 and will rest on the new Mayor’s casting vote.
Who would have thought Mayor Making would become such a drama. It happens on Wed 9 May. If just one councillor did not get there for whatever reason everything could change.
I hope we can have more independents. There should be more focus on issues facing Abingdon rather than party political wrangling. It is so unseemly. So much for working towards the common good.
Backstreeter – are you sure about the date of the mayormaking? The TC website has it as Wed 9 May – I think the 16 May was last year’s date! I am sure lots of your readers will wnat to go so please could you double-check for us?
Re Janet; Perhaps the article should be renamed “Abingdon-on-Thames’ most wanted”. There is so much to do, so work together and make the town a better place for all.
I am pretty sure it is the 9th May. 16th May was the date last year.
Mayor making/choosing is an old tradition which should be followed, regardless of politics.
Wish there were more independents, then perhaps they would do what’s best for Abingdon, rather than playing party politics. I agree that the traditional way should be followed.
If the traditional way of choosing the Mayor was followed, – ie longest serving councillor who has not yet been Mayor – then the new Mayor would be Cllr Bowring and the Deputy would be Cllr Lawrence
i think it’s only fair that the mayor is from the party that got the most candidates in – the old way sounds more like an old boys club.
apart from which, if the mayor is chosen that way you probably won’t get the best person for the job – assuming the mayor is more than an expenses claiming figurehead
In most Councils they Mayor is chosen from the ruling group, that’s just the way it is…
*the
I thought that for most Councils, the Mayor is chosen by all councillors. It doesn’t follow that he/she has to be from the ruling group!
There are some other interesting systems around – like this one:
“Oldham determines its Deputy Mayor using a points system.
Points are awarded to each political group for the number of seats held at the time of the previous Annual Council, with a deduction from the group that has the current Deputy Mayor.
The political group with the greatest number of points is then able to nominate the Deputy Mayor.
The Deputy Mayor is appointed for 12 months, before assuming the role of Mayor.
In each case, this is subject to the nominee retaining their seat.”
Im not sure where this so called local tradition idea people mention came from. If that was the case why was it common all through the 1800s and 1900s for councillors to be mayor for two or three years running? and then again after a few years break? I think Tomkin or somebody was mayor around nine times. Cant be a very old so called tradition surely?
It is not just a question of tradition, but a policy decided by the council which the current administration chose to ignore, albeit not illegally. The point is that the ‘old’ system avoided all this wrangling and, for that matter, shared out the responsibilities among all the councillors, at least those eligible. And as far as the comment about ‘expenses’ is concerned, I can quote that it cost me about £750 out of those limited expenses to attend the celebrations in Abingdon Virginia, and that one ‘ball’, cost me £90 for the tickets. I definitely subsidised the office when I was major to something of the order of £3k.
@rudi – the Mayor of Abingdon has traditionally been a non-party role, and as such has commanded the support and respect of everyone in the town. The role involves Chairing Council meetings, but most of the time involves attending civic functions, club and society events etc. and is not party political.
The Leader of the Council and Chairs of Committees etc., which are political posts, rightly go to the majority party.
@Native – it has been the tradition for many decades and worked very well. I believe it predates party politics on the Town Council and has been a very effective way of maintaining the Mayor as a non-partisan position since party politics has been the norm.
@carryonupthethames Are you sure about that? This year the Lord Mayor of Oxford has been a Green councillor and this coming year it will be a Lib Dem, and that’s with a Labour majority. In Didcot Labour won a majority last year but still appointed the Conservative whose turn it was.
A few points:
1. The council cannot have a ‘policy’ that fetters future councils on deciding who would be thee chairman (the role which we also call our mayor). That would be illegal. There is some guidance given in the standing orders (our code of practice) which sets out a recommended ‘order of succession’ however this is changed from time to time, and was indeed amended by the last liberal administration in the dying days of their administration before they were fired by the electorate. The process for selecting tge mayor is, and always has been as far as I am aware, down to a vote of councillors, who are empowered to vote in any way they see fit.
2. The issue of the choice of mayor has not Kim recent years been very important as the balance between the parties has not been close. However the chairman of the council in effect gets two votes due to the way their casting vote works, both in council and on all tge standing committees. If the conservative administration gave the extra vote to a member of another party we would in effect be saying to tge electorate ‘thank you for electing us, however we are going to give control of tge council to another party’. Personally I think this would be anti-democratic and over-rides any sentiment about recent precedent.
3. The mayor does indeed have a significant role as the towns civic representative in many ceremonial events and I believe this is mon-political. I do not believe any of the 21 councillors would seek to bring politics into these duties, regardless of which party (if any) they belong to.
Anyway, thats a brief(ish) explanation of my perspective as a conservative councillor. Others people may see tge situation differently, however I hope they can understand this is a considered choice.
2.
…and sorry for all typos – difficult to correct as I go on the phone I’m afraid 🙂
Um – Iain, the last administration wasn’t fired – it was an Election! And 13 councillors from the last council chose to stand for re-election. Of those, 8 won their seats again.
I think many people would think that precisely because the balance of the parties is so close that the mayor/chair should not be chosen for political reasons.
A rose by any name Helen 🙂
Sorry – I don’t usually use helenp2 on here .. Not trying to hide -its my name on some other blogs/forums!h
Some of us do work for the common good and is the only reason we came into politics. Also Abingdon’s “tradition” of choosing Mayors isn’t actually that traditional!
@Iain
On your point 1 – I don’t think anyone has accused the Conservatives of doing anything illegal or against Standing Orders, just that they are wrong.
On your point 2 – didn’t the Lib Dems agree that, if chosen, they would not use the casting vote to frustrate the policies of the majority group?
On your point 3 – once they have been elected for partisan reasons they can’t magically become non-partisan when convenient!
Hi Kat
On 1 – fair enough, everyone entitled to opinion. Just wanted to explain that we think it would be ‘more wrong’ not to choose a mayor from our party given tge current tight political situation.
On 2 – not that I remember, although I could be wrong on this. I think it would be difficult to be sure of any such offer as there would be no way to enforce it, and once the mayority was voted to the opposition we would have no ability to undo the situation should it not work out.
On 3 – nearly all the councillors are partisan but manage to leave our party hats at the door for civic events so don’t see your issue here. Wouldn’t your point hold for nearly every mayor we’ve had in recent years as they were all elected under party banners when they stood for council?
Wow – what a nonsense about the Town Council – maybe for the VOWH council, but the Town, the Town! It all turned last year on one vote anyway; as people have said, put the Town’s interests first; do people really vote on a party whip about allotments etc??
All of this aside – local government should not allow party politics in, a vote for a council of independents please!