Wednesday 11 August 2010

Is Albert Owen serious about an Elected Mayor?

According to the Daily Post, Albert Owen used the Anglesey Show yesterday to launch his campaign for an elected mayor for Anglesey, saying:

"I believe that a mayor voted in by the people of Anglesey is the only way we can really go forward with the County Council. 
He or she will have the people's mandate to manage both the councillors themselves, and also create a manifesto for the island that will naturally run its' course, parallel to the duration of the council itself. 
A directly elected mayor will be someone who would speak for the whole area and would make it easier to get things done and would be responsible should things go wrong.
It's time for Anglesey County Council to get its act together and be accountable for its actions. I believe an elected mayor is the best way forward for the Island, bringing both stability and accountability to the people of Anglesey."

As it happens your humble Druid spent most of yesterday at the Anglesey Show and didn't notice any "campaign" being launched there. Which is strange because in order to trigger a referendum on appointing an elected mayor it is necessary to collect signatures of, from memory, 10% of the electorate - so in Anglesey's case that should be somewhere around 5,000 signatures. And where better place to start collecting signatures than at the Anglesey Show? It surely would have been fairly easy for Albert to get a bunch of Labour activists to stand by the entrance asking visitors to sign a petition calling for an elected mayor. Yet I noticed no canvassers, no banners calling for a mayor outside the Labour portacabin, in fact nothing at all. Did anyone else see anything?

My point here is this: is Albert Owen serious about campaigning for an elected Mayor, or is this just empty posturing so that when challenged about the council he can claim to have proposed a solution?

8 comments:

Anonymous said...

Not only would Albert Owen need 5000 signatures, they would all have to be registered electors of Anglesey with names, addresses and voters registration numbers all checkable with IOACC Electoral service Department. Quite a costly undertaking.

On the other hand, Albert Owen is our MP. He would be better off looking after his own obligations and stop interfering in local politics, particularly as he is supporting breaches of Human Rights Act that the Labour Group leader, John Chorlton has involved himself in.

Anonymous said...

Sounds just like some media spin to me.

Mr. Owen is an elected member. Consequently, he should ask the people of Anglesey what they want first, rather than pushing a so-called solution (that I doubt would bring the kind of results he envisages) on us.

In many places with mayors, there is a problem of too much power in one person's hands, and that person if often very controversial. How long would it be before one of the usual suspects ends up as mayor, who then abuses the position for the same old Anglesey nonsense of corruption and favour?

Anonymous said...

As for whether there has to be a referendum - yes there does. But bizarrely it doesn;t have to be beforehand.

The cities of Leeds and Wakefield are about to have them put into place but athe referendum not for two years after.

The Department for Communities and Local Government say they can be put into place "subject to confirmatory referendums".

Anonymous said...

"I believe that a mayor voted in by the people of Anglesey is the only way we can really go forward with the County Council."

The council we have were voted in by the people of Anglesey and look what happened, so how is this going to be any better

Anonymous said...

If Albert Owen and John Chorlton is involved with the decision to force a Mayor through, then keep clear, anything tainted by those two is bound to stink!

Anonymous said...

John Chorlton and Albert Owen seem to have this mayor campaign sawn up before the ballot papers have been drawn up.

The seed has been planted in their turnip heads that the whole issue is a done deal, they see this as a golden opportunity to turn the mess the public rant about in Llangefni into a political advantage, the advantage being a power vacuum created by a disenchanted voter, being able to be spun into the idea of creating and electing a mayor, to lead this Council out of the mess.

No mayor can do this, it's an impossible task, the whole political water of Anglesey is filled with turds and stinks of piss, the piss of waste.

Beware the propaganda, ignore the spin from those bald baboons, for they will make a monkey of us all. The only man I would elect for Mayor would be the biggest victim of this Council, I want HIM to put his hand up and be counted.

Anonymous said...

When the Authorities have finished with John Chorlton, he won't have a pot to piss in.

Unknown said...

So that was what he was nattering about in our tent while ignoring the stalls and blocking the entrance to customers?