Bristol mayor role to be replaced with council leader

Voters in Bristol decided to scrap the post of elected mayor in the referendum

A city mayor will be replaced by a council leader after local elections in May next year.

The new leader of Bristol City Council will carry out many of the same roles as current directly-elected mayor Marvin Rees, but with fewer powers.

In May 2022 residents voted to scrap the role of mayor in a referendum.

Liberal Democrat councillor Tim Kent told a working group meeting: "The reality is you cannot do all the business in committee meetings."

Bristol City Council is to move to a committee-run model of governance, but similarities with the mayoral model will remain.

As well as a council leader, current cabinet members will be replaced by eight committee chairs who are responsible for various parts of the council's work.

Details of the new roles were explored by the committee model working group on April 28 according to the Local Democracy Reporting Service (LDRS).

The role of elected mayor, currently carried out by Marvin Rees, will cease in May 2024

The council leader will be chosen by a majority of councillors directly after the elections next year. The councillor chosen will most likely be the head of whichever political group wins the most seats.

They will represent the council politically, for example with the government and the media, as well as guiding the direction of the council's overall strategy.

'Informal meeting'

During the working group meeting, Liberal Democrat Councillor Tim Kent said: "I'll say something very unpopular.

"There'll be an informal meeting convened by the leader, with senior officers and chairs of the committees. If we don't have that operating, the system will just grind down.

"All public decisions have to be made in public. But we all know there are 1,000 other decisions and steers and guides.

"And we have to have that conversation between senior officers and committee chairs.

"That doesn't mean that we're going back to a mayoral model. But the reality is you cannot do all the business in committee meetings."