Salford residents have voted to change its democratic structures yesterday paving the way for a directly-elected mayor for the city.
Turnout for the vote was just 18% and the plans received 17,344 ‘yes’ votes, with 13,635 ‘no’ votes.
The Salford poll was trigged by a petition of 9,062 signatures was presented to the council. Under the Local Government Act 2000, a referendum for mayor is triggered if more than 5% of the electorate sign up to a petition. The cost of the poll was expected to be around £200,000.
Eleven cities are set to go to the polls on 3 May to decide if they want to move to the mayoral model. Earlier this week, cities minister Greg Clark announced that the cities that opt for a mayor in May will go to the polls on 15 November, a day now being dubbed ‘super Thursday’.
The 11 cities with referendums are: Birmingham, Bradford, Bristol, Coventry, Leeds, Liverpool, Manchester, Newcastle upon Tyne, Nottingham, Sheffield and Wakefield.
Liverpool announced yesterday that it hopes to by-pass its referendum and go straight to the polls for a directly elected mayor in May. It is currently in talks with the government over the proposals.
Doncaster MBC, which currently has a directly elected mayor, is bucking the trend and will decide shortly if it is to scrap the mayoral system.
