Jaya Chakrabarti: "Proposals for a referendum on retaining the mayoral system risk weakening the city’s democracy"

Jaya Chakrabarti says proposals being debated by Bristol City Council tomorrow (Tuesday 7 December) on whether to have a referendum on retaining the mayoral system risk weakening the city’s democracy

Flashback to 2012. I chaired the “Yes to Democratically Elected Mayors” (DEM) campaign because I wanted to give Bristol a choice in its governance. We’d had five changes of leadership in seven years, and having worked in Westminster in various roles, I knew the perception of our city was one where “nothing ever got done”. 

Bristol was deemed a backwater.  We couldn’t get agreement within our parties let alone across our borders within the West of England.  

Flashforward to 2021. When I heard that there was another motion being proposed to revert back to the old model of city governance I felt a sense of frustration. I completely agree that the current model needs to be improved. But we now have a significant body of evidence upon which to base those improvements. 

Why on earth would we choose a Yes/No, In/Out nuclear option without considering that evidence? Surely we’re mature enough to provide a Remain and Reform option, to build on the good and change the bad?

Before the 2012 referendum Bristol was prone to long periods of “no overall control”. 

Council leaders were not given the power to provide stability. Ministers claimed they could not remember the names of leaders.

In order to recover from the pandemic, Brexit and our climate crisis, Bristol needs investment. It will need to form strong relationships with regional and central government. These relationships can only be achieved with stability of leadership. It’s easier to negotiate with someone who has already been given the power to deliver on what they promise, than one who has to go back and ask for it. 

Because of our change to the DEM model, Bristol now acts as a powerful city, not as a city council. Our identity is known across the world. Our democracy here in Bristol can and does speak truth to power. 

That, to me, is “Big D” democracy. What we must fix now is how it works with our local democracy, the “little d”. That means our wards need their own voices. There must be a line of power that connects them to whoever has a mandate from all of Bristol’s electorate.

As a business community leader, I know that businesses need stability. Unlike politicians who have to think within four yearly terms, business leaders need to think and act for the long term.

Finally, we need to remember that our citizens are hurting and exhausted. From the pandemic, from Brexit, from inflation, climate change and uncertainty. If we’re really going to be true to their democracy, Bristol cannot allow another referendum to go ahead without a full examination of the evidence. There is time for this debate to happen and we should use it.

We owe it to Bristol to get this right.

Jaya Chakrabarti was chair of the Yes campaign during Bristol’s elected mayor referendum in 2012 and is current president of the Bristol Chamber of Commerce and Initiative.