Plymouth war hero Mark Ormrod is urging residents to vote for a Mayor in next week’s Referendum, saying the way the city has degenerated over the last 20 years due to a lack of enthusiasm and investment is ‘embarrassing’.
Mr Ormrod, a triple amputee after stepping on an IED whilst serving in Afghanistan in 2007, said the city has never lived up to its huge potential and that it was time those in charge moved aside to allow someone with more energy to give residents the ‘thriving city’ they deserve. He said:
“I’ve lived here my entire life and for a very, very long time I’ve seen the potential the city has and it’s never lived up to it. It has rapidly degenerated over the years."
“There’s been no good investment or enthusiasm, there’s so much we could do but the fact we don’t do it is embarrassing. And the people who are in charge are responsible for this. That’s the burden of leadership. Whether you love it or hate it, it's your job to do it, it's your problem.
“We live on the doorstep of Dartmoor, the doorstep of Cornwall, we're on the ocean, we've got an incredible military community and history, we've got the university and I love the people of Plymouth. We have all these different things that are so great. But for the last 20 odd years, it just seems to have been limping along, getting worse.”
It comes as Plymouth is just a week away from a once-in-a-generation chance to change how the city is run, in a Referendum on July 17.
Citizens have the choice to vote for a directly-elected Mayor or leader, chosen by them and directly accountable to them. Or to remain with the current leadership model of a leader chosen by councillors behind closed doors and not the public.
Mr Ormrod, a born-and-bred Plymothian, said he wants to see someone who is passionate about Plymouth and could bring energy to the role of Mayor. He added:
“I’d also like to see someone who doesn’t represent a political party, and they're not swayed a certain way. If you've got one person who is the directly elected Mayor of the city, everything is on their shoulders. The failure, the success, the wins, the losses, you've got to have someone, who takes full accountability, and extreme ownership of that position.
“I would love to see a Mayor bring other big companies in to create revenue and jobs.
“You need somebody who is apolitical, who doesn't get caught up in all that, and someone who will come up with what's best for the people of Plymouth, and then get on and do it.
“But the thing that annoys me the most is watching all these idiots bickering between themselves while things like the trees in Armada Way happen. That was just the most infuriating thing ever and they spent millions of pounds.
“If they didn't act like little children arguing with each other trying to point score, and they actually did what was right for Plymouth, someone would have put their hands up immediately and taken responsibility for that.
“But they just push the blame and argue and bicker like children. And ultimately the people who are negatively affected are the people of Plymouth because they don't get what they deserve, which is a thriving city.”
Mr Ormrod said Plymouth is the second largest city for veterans in the country after Leeds, but that veterans here don’t feel supported.
He said an empty building such as the Debenhams unit, could be turned into something along the lines of the Chelsea Pensioners’ hospital and home in London, and that schemes could be implemented to enable veterans to help around the city, but that there’s ‘no real push for it’ in Plymouth. He said:
“We are the second largest veteran city next to Leeds in the whole country, yet no one seems to do anything about that. I was in London at the Chelsea Pensioners place a couple of weeks ago and I just thought it was incredible - you could do that in Plymouth. You could make this the best city in the country to be a veteran. And what's great about it is that veterans are men and women of service. They want to help, they would volunteer to be litter pickers or gardeners or to paint things and keep the city centre looking nice and put something into the community.
“But that's just not happening because they’re not feeling supported and there’s no real push for it. There's no one leading the charge. The guy in charge of veterans is Luke Pollard MP and he's not a veteran. And he justifies it by saying, his dad was a submariner. Well, my dad was a ceramic tiler, but you don't want me to tile your bathroom, because I don’t know what I’m doing.”
Last month Local Government Minister Jim McMahon announced he didn’t want new city Mayors to be created despite being very keen on having a regional Mayor. Despite Mr McMahon’s and Labour’s intervention less than three weeks before the Referendum, under current law it will go ahead after being triggered by 13,800 residents signing a petition.
Under current legislation the referendum remains valid and will trigger change in the constitution of Plymouth City Council to create the office of Mayor. It would then be up to the Government to specifically target Plymouth to remove the office of our Mayor.
Mr Ormrod said it is now imperative those living in Plymouth turn out on July 17 and vote for democracy. He said:
"A thousand per cent people should go out and vote. I wouldn't mind if the people that were in charge were doing a phenomenal job, the city was thriving, and everyone was happy, but it's the opposite. They're doing a terrible job and trying to maintain power, which in my mind, means it's just going to get worse.
“It just really frustrates me that this city could be so insanely good. This is your chance to be heard and to turn the city into what you want it to be.”
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