Dear Sir,
The Independents put forward a view that where the controlling Group (whichever that is) has a clear majority then it had nothing to fear from selecting the person to be Mayor to be the longest serving member, who must of course also be suitable (and not everyone is, including Labour), Not everyone wants to be Mayor, hence a free vote would allow that principle and safeguard the reputation of the Council. The argument that because Labour won a majority and thus have a democratic mandate to select only Labour Councillors as Mayor is tenuous at best, and effectively declares the Mayor to be purely Party political. It was never in any leaflet or manifesto.
The argument of “If the Independents were in the clear majority what would we do” is very simple – no, we would not only appoint Independents we would look to elect a Mayor as someone who had seniority in length of service, but also was suitable to do the job of chairing a Full Council meetings and able to represent the Council in the Community and beyond, irrespective of politics. I for one would never exclude someone just because they did Choosing the Town Mayor not belong to a particular Group. This would also concentrate the minds of those who might want to be Mayor since they would have to earn the respect of their fellow councillors and demonstrate the necessary qualities to be voted in.
Indeed Labour controlled Darlington selects it’s Mayor on the same principle as I indicate. Are they wrong? The Independents in Great Aycliffe did not stand on an anti Labour platform at the elections, nor did we contest every seat on the Council. Elsewhere in County Durham in particular Spennymoor, Seaham, Peterlee, Ferryhill etc, the Independents there were almost rabidly anti Labour. Indeed on Sedgefield Town Council no Labour candidates stood at all. On Great Aycliffe Town Council, with the elections over till 4 years time, we will continue to work constructively and positively with Labour members to maintain and improve the services and facilities of the Council within the dire financial constraints facing all of us.
We will not oppose something just for the sake of it. A wise person does not reject suggestions simply because the do not like the person making them. To illustrate the point, if the Independents had contested all 30 seats on the Council, and gained a majority, I would still have supported Cllr Bob Fleming the Labour Leader as Leader of the Council, and make no apology for saying so. Merit alone should be the distinguishing characteristic of supporting someone to a position. In the early 1990’s I was within one vote of convincing the Labour Group to support a Lib Dem Councillor being Mayor, and prior to being elected in 1983 I worked closely behind the scenes in putting Enid Meadows (Labour) for Mayor and Brian Jackson (Tory) for Deputy Mayor to stop a totally unsuitable member of the then Aycliffe First Party from becoming Mayor and bringing the role into disrepute. Those long in the tooth will know who I mean.
Obviously in rare circumstances when you have a finely balanced council I would expect the majority group to hold the office of Mayor because being the Chairman of the Council, they might need the use of the Chairman’s casting vote. But in all other circumstances there is nothing lost by putting up a person with long service and merit. Our Town Council very rarely conducts its meetings on Party political lines, if at all, and once elected we are all there to do the same job, in serving the community.
Cllr Arun Chandran Independent
