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An Elected Mayor for East Anglia?

by Tom Yates on 30 March, 2016

Councillor Catherine Smart comments on what has been going on.

The Government has offered to devolve power from Whitehall if there is an Elected Mayor for East Anglia.

Cambridge City Council, the Cambridgeshire business community (as represented by the LEP) and Cambridgeshire County Council, have all said, “Thanks but no thanks”.

The reasons for saying “no” are stressed differently by different parties but include:-

1. The area to be covered, Norfolk, Suffolk, Cambridgeshire and Peterborough, has little cohesion and is not one economic unit. It ignores the Cambridge area’s strong links south and west and Peterborough’s connections with the East Midlands: both these are recognised by the composition of the Greater Cambridgeshire, Greater Peterborough Local Enterprise Partnership.

2. One directly elected Mayor who appoints his/her own cabinet and cannot be over-ruled except by two-thirds of that same cabinet, is inherently un-democratic. If there is to be an elected Mayor, there must be a proper Assembly to provide the necessary scrutiny and check on absolute power. Knowledge of such a wide and disparate area would be very difficult for a single person – a situation made worse by the lack of any assembly.

3. The powers to be devolved from Whitehall are few and some powers will also be removed from the present local authorities. The amount of money on offer is small compared with the area to be covered. Therefore the proposal adds another layer of government to no obvious advantage.

4. The major problem in Greater Cambridgeshire is housing – especially housing that can be afforded by people on average and below average incomes. Requests made by Cambridge City Council and South Cambs District Council for devolved powers that would help to ease these problems, were turned down flat by the Government.

5. Without specific safeguards, any new arrangements run the risk of damaging the City Deal which the City Council, South Cambs and the County Council have in place and which they are using to try and ease the other big problem of the area – the need for affordable, convenient, fast, safe and sustainable transport links. There are no safeguards for the City Deal in the proposal.

6. The whole thing was put together in three weeks without any chance of proper discussion with councillors, business people or residents. Devolution was supposed to be a bottom up exercise but this was imposed by the Treasury to make a headline in the budget.

So what happens now?

There is growing opposition to the proposals as they stand so the Government:-

either has to impose the arrangements it wants on a reluctant population.

or it has to rethink and start to negotiate properly.

or it has to drop the idea.

Watch this space!!!

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