Democracy locally, decisions centrally?

The Department for Communities and Local Government is consulting again in the 'Communities in Control: Real People, real power' series. This time the subject is 'Changing Council Governance arrangements – Mayors and Indirectly Elected Leaders'.

Despite the grandiose exhortations throughout the consultation paper "to strengthen participatory democracy" and to "deliver genuine empowerment to local people", this is solely about making it easier to change council governance arrangements to the Government's preferred mayoral model.

Labour councillors overwhelmingly opposed the mayoral system during the passage of the Local Government Bill in Labour's first term, labelling it as 'dictatorial', centralising power in hands largely unaccountable during the term of office, as the role and powers of ordinary councillors are curbed.

There are currently only 12 councils in England that have the mayoral model and one of those – Stoke-on-Trent – has recently voted to return to the 'leader and cabinet executive' model. Of the 37 where local authorities have sanctioned referendums, over two-thirds have rejected the idea, and none have approved it since Torbay in 2005.

The Government is therefore reforming the process to make it easier. Already the Secretary of State has the power to order a referendum to take place, as it did in Southwark in 2002. However, more often it requires a petition supported by just 5% of the electorate. This hurdle is too high says the Government, and the consultation proposes lowering the threshold to as little as 2% of the electorate, which the Government bizarrely claims would "encourage local people to get involved" by requiring fewer of them to get involved!

The Government is also proposing to allow petition signatures to be added online. Another proposal is that if the local electorate make the wrong decision and reject the mayoral system, then the 'moratorium period' during which another referendum cannot be held will be reduced from 10 years to 4 years.

The average turnout for these referendums has been around 25%, slightly lower than for local elections, and so it hardly seems to have generated greater public engagement. Neither does it seem a worthwhile use of council taxpayers' money to ask them the same question every four years.

The consultation paper can be downloaded from the DCLG website, and the deadline for responses is 13th March 2009.

The Conservatives are even more keen on directly-elected mayors now it seems.