Speakers Corner
Speaker's Corner is designed to give people from across Liverpool the chance to debate and have their say on the issues which are facing the city. We will feature a new Speaker's Corner every couple of weeks, and we welcome your comments beneath the featured article.
We would like to stress that those appearing on Speakers Corner do not necessarily support the Labour Party. This is designed to be a place to generate debate and discussion about the way forward for the City of Liverpool, in all parts of Liverpool life. We welcome bias and opinions, and hope that Speaker's Corner becomes a forum where people can come together and argue their case for how to make Liverpool work better.
In May, Liverpool people will be choosing local councillors. But they'll be stuck with a system of local politics that keeps letting Liverpool down.
Forget the “Most Improved Council” title, concocted by the council press office.
Liverpool's capacity to mess things up – whether it involves trams, stadiums, regeneration projects or just gritting the roads – is undiminished.
After the Mathew Street fiasco, a caller to Roger Phillips' phone-in nailed it in one: “We talk like a big city, but we act like a town.”
And as for holding those responsible to account? Forget it.
When things go wrong here people get six-figure pay-offs as others run for cover. In Liverpool responsibility is something you dodge, not something you take. Our Council has become synonymous with infighting, vendettas and a seat-of-the-pants approach to decision-making.
And too many big decisions are made by quangos, agencies and boards away from the limelight and proper scrutiny. Ask “who's in charge?” in Liverpool and you never get a straight answer. Part-time councillors and unelected officers cannot give Liverpool the accountable, effective leadership it needs.
No wonder our local election turnouts – the lowest in the country – are so pitiful.
So what's to be done? Simply turfing out one lot of councillors and replacing them with another isn't enough.
We need an Elected Mayor with a mandate to speak and act for the whole of Liverpool. The current council leader owes his status to voters in Wavertree and the backing of two dozen colleagues. Council leaders lead councils. It takes a Mayor to lead a city.
Sceptical Labour supporters should look at what Mayors like Jules Pipe (Hackney) and Steve Bullock (Lewisham) have been able to achieve: better services , greater engagement with the public and real strategic leadership.
Liverpool's first Elected Mayor will be a national political figure, subject to intense scrutiny by the media, councillors, auditors and – most importantly - local voters. The Mayor would stand or fall by their record, and be answerable to the people of Liverpool through the ballot box.
Joe Anderson and others support the idea of a directly-elected Mayor for Merseyside or “Greater Liverpool.” They see the merits of having a visible, accountable figure to co-ordinate key services and set out a vision for the future. Quite right, too. It's time we applied these same principles to a council which actually exists – Liverpool City Council. How about it, Joe?
Liam Fogarty, Chair, amayorforliverpool.org