Saturday 26 March 2011

Mayoral candidate: I want to scrap the post of elected mayor for Torbay.

The candidate in question is Gordon Oliver who is standing in the conservative party's interests. He, like many other people believe we don't really need and definitely don't really want an elected mayor. Now I would break a lifetimes aversion to voting Tory if Mr Oliver promised, if elected to do absolutely nothing as elected mayor. Draw no salary, attend no meetings, make no statements, influence no decisions make by the council, make everyone call him Mr Oliver. The last proviso is the problem. Mr Oliver is a councillor at the moment and I am sure that if he stands for the mayor's job he can not also attempt to get re elected as a councillor. Which means he has too much to lose by making the above promises, it would mean he would have no say in the running of the Bay for the next 4 years. He isn't going to do that I don't think.

So what we need is a candidate for Mayor who will make the above promises and keep them. It would save a hundred thousand pounds a year to get rid of the mayor and let the council run the Bay, which is what they are supposed to do.

PS. It costs £500 deposit to run for mayor which you get back if you get at least 5% of the vote. An volunteers out there with 500 quid to risk losing?

2 comments:

Dave said...

I don't think you would like having a mayor who never got involved David. - Dave

David said...

The present mayor got too involved and made a complete mess of almost everything he did, which has put me of the idea of having an elected mayor.