Walton MP Peter Kilfoyle putting the cat among the pigeons with elected mayor proposal
Walton MP Peter Kilfoyle said he wanted to "put the cat among the pigeons" in his calls for a London-style directly elected mayor for the Liverpool city region.
He has released research he commissioned into the way the region is governed at present.
I suspect that rather than put the cat among the pigeons the report will be dismissed by many, but it makes a number of interesting points that are worth considering.
Among the key conclusions are calls for:
A directly-elected mayor - akin to London's Boris Johnson - to "bring vision, innovation and real accountability";
A 12-strong assembly - with six directly-elected members, because its current leadership is a "closed and incestuous shop";
Tax and spend powers - perhaps over waste charges, road-pricing, local income tax, higher business rats, or a tourism tax;
A bigger city-region - perhaps including Warrington, Ellesmere Port and Neston, Chester and even Wrexham and Flintshire.
The report also has some harsh words for Liverpool Council:
It claims the so-called "cabinet" of the six council leaders lacks imagination and gives them "potential conflicts of interest" and has been weakened by Liverpool Council's poor public image of "in-fighting, factionalism and allegations of unprofessionalism and mismanagement".
The report said the weaknesses were laid bare by the "bolshie squabbling" over Everton Football Club's plans to move out of Liverpool, to Knowsley.
Part of the problem with this of course is that is not in the gift of the local councils to make these changes, even if they wanted to. Only the Government can introduce the changes that Mr Kilfoyle is calling for.
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David Bartlett
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Good grief! This is pie-in-the-sky nonsense from Kilfoyle. It can't seriously be based on 'research'. Most of his ideas go way beyond current proposals for executive mayors which are themselves highly questionable. One suspects Kilfoyle fears his name hasn't been in the Press for a while. As the election nears get ready for his further 'research-based' proposals on the colonisation of Mars, the end of global poverty, and the need for more 5-star restaurants in Walton.
Does anyone see irony in a report written by his daughter's company lambasting the leadership as a "closed and incestuous shop"?
Has the question been asked of Kilfoyle if the 'independent' report he commissioned was commissioned using public money?
If it was, then serious questions need to be asked, given that the company that undertook this research is allegedly run by his own daughter.
Not only does this undermine the objectivity of the reports findings, it raises again the spectre of MPâÂÂs using public money to benefit of family members - even if this is within the rules
The Guardian on Saturday November 28th 2009 carried two stories on page 29 about elected mayors. In one story, the mayor of Beausoleil on the French Cote D'Azur is among 12 people arrested as part of an enquiry into "corruption, abuse of public funds, influence trafficking and money laundering". The other is about a Phillipines mayor who is under arrest on suspicion of being "directly involved in the massacre of 57 people, including the wife and sisters of a political rival and dozens of journalists." These are just the latest in a long line of corrupt elected mayors from around the globe.(Google "corrupt elected mayor" and see for yourself) No doubt Peter Kilfoyle would call this type of thing as just the sort of firm leadership we need on Merseyside. Thank goodness the modern day political class in Britain has such a spotless reputation......
Doncaster was one of the very first local authorities to have an elected mayor since 2001. Peter Kilfoyle, Liam Fogarty et al should explain why despite this "leadership" children's services in Doncaster has deteriorated markedly as exemplified by the recent case where two young boys were nearly killed by two children nominally in the care of Doncaster Council.
Meanwhile Liverpool City Council under its fuddy duddy old style executive arrangements now has one of the best children's services departments in the country in marked contrast to the position inherited from Labour in 1998.