A third Plymouth councillor has backed a directly elected Mayor chosen by YOU, saying the city has ‘gone stale’ under its current leadership.
Cllr Carol Ney, resigned as a Labour councillor last week, and will continue representing the Southway ward as an independent, saying she no longer supports the party after it slashed winter fuel and disability payments.
She will now sit as an Independent, joining seven others on the council.
Her comments come as Plymouth Plus can reveal that 80% of our readers voted "YES" in our poll asking whether Plymouth should replace its council leader with a directly elected mayor chosen by the people.
Plymouth Labour suffered three defections in less than a week, after Compton’s Dylan Tippetts left and joined the Lib Dems, and Honicknowle’s Zoe Reilly also resigned to sit as an Independent.
Councillor Ney has now pledged her support for this summer’s referendum, and the campaign for Plymouth to have a directly elected leader.
On Thursday 17th July, residents will vote on how they want to see the city run in the future.
Cllr Ney’s endorsement follows similar declarations from fellow Independent councillors Terri Beer and Maddi Bridgeman, both of whom have publicly supported a Yes vote in July's referendum, citing political dysfunction and a lack of real accountability at the top.
Currently the leader must be a councillor chosen by other councillors, but if the referendum is a success, people will be able to choose their leader directly, from a wider range of candidates from across the city.
A directly elected leader would not need to be political, but would be directly accountable to the people of the city. Cllr Ney said:
“It’s got stale and it’s time the people of Plymouth have a say on how the city is run and who makes decisions for them.
“We’ve had this model for a while and we’ve had the political leader being picked by the lead party and it doesn’t seem to be moving forward. We need a new leader.
“What's exciting about the DEM campaign is we’ve got the chance to get a new person in to help change things. It actually gives the people of Plymouth the chance to make a decision on whether they want to elect somebody to be in control of the city like a DEM.”
Cllr Ney says what Plymouth desperately needs is a leader who is not political, but that simply wants the best for the city and its people, rather than their political party. She added:
“I’d like to see change. For the last God knows how many years the political party in power has had the say on who runs the cabinet. For me it’s exciting that we could bring in change and also a new person in power who doesn’t have a political view who will ultimately do what’s best for Plymouth and not the political party.”
Cllr Ney says Plymouth appears to have had a lack of investment and that this is particularly apparent in her own ward of Southway, and the wider Moor View constituency. She said:
“There appears to have been a lack of investment in the city. You can see there are pockets in the city like Plymouth Moor View that don't have a lot of new investment in the area. It doesn’t have any council run swimming pools, gardens or children’s play areas.
“I think the people in my ward would like the choice to vote. If they vote against it, that’s fine but at least they’ve had the choice. At the end of the day the people will have chosen. And the leader will have to have listened.
“I think it would be a good thing to have a non-political Mayor. The most important thing for me is that whoever is Mayor can then pick people accountable to them to help run the city. It’s more democratic that way.”
Currently across the country, there are 27 Mayors, with 30 million people in England living in areas with a directly elected leader in either a metro or unitary authority. And Cllr Ney wants Plymouth to join that number. She said:
“Other cities have Mayors, and I don’t see why Plymouth isn’t good enough to have that system. It’s about letting people have the choice, and that choice shouldn’t be taken away from them. If it’s good enough for other cities, why not Plymouth. I just want what’s best for Plymouth.”
Plymouth Plus has contacted all current Independent Plymouth councillors for their views on the mayoral referendum. Responses received will be published in due course.
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