Mid Devon residents called to decide what sort of leadership they’d prefer

The people in Mid-Devon are being asked to have their say on the kind of leadership they’d like as the council gears up to establishing new executive arrangements. The options on offer are an elected mayor, or a ‘strong leader’.

The strong leader would be appointed by the council from 42 district councillors and can be removed or replaced by the council during their period of office, whereas the elected mayor would be elected by residents, would not be a councillor and cannot be removed by the council during their period of office.

There would be additional cost implications for the election/referendum of a directly elected mayor and the mayor would be entitled to an allowance.

Both the strong leader and the elected mayor would be appointed for for years, decide how many councillors make up the Executive/Cabinet, decide the jobs of the Executive/Cabinet Members, appoint councillors to form an Executive/Cabinet, and have power to dismiss Executive/Cabinet Members.

Mid-Devon District Council’s current Executive prefer the strong leader model as it preserves the links with councillors and representation of wards in the present political system and this would be very similar to the existing Executive model which the council has been operating since November 2007. And the elected mayor model is considered to be more appropriate to city government rather than a rural authority such as Mid Devon District Council.

Also a strong leader can be removed during their period of office if the council considers this appropriate.

The council is seeking residents’ views on the future shape of the council and the views received from will be collated and presented to councillors and a formal decision on which model to implement will be made at a meeting of the full council in December.

To take part in the consultation, go to the Mid-Devon Council website and click on ‘have my say’.

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