Elected mayors ought to have more powers

A university professor has suggested that elected mayors should have powers that extend behind the cities they represent.

Professor Keith Grint claims that elected mayors for all cities, including Birmingham and Coventry, should be able to be responsible for “economic areas” that span other city boundaries to help “foster economic growth”.

Keith Grint actually used Birmingham as an example in his statements to the press. He said, if Birmingham were to have an elected mayor and Coventry were not to, “Birmingham might begin changing significantly and move radically away from and faster than Coventry“.

Voters in 10 cities all across the country will decide whether or not they want a directly-elected mayor on Thursday 3rd May 2012.

By – Bradley Jolly (20/4/12)

Jaddoo to tackle ‘issues affecting youth’

Desmond Jaddoo has suggested that young people in the city should ‘form groups together‘ and ‘appoint a leader‘ to deal with the issues in the city the youth face.

Mr. Jaddoo spoke of a young persons charter scheme, which he described, “would be directly linked to the Mayor’s office” and “is something whereby in certain areas of the city we get young people in the city to form groups together and appoint a leader and that leader convenes with the Mayor’s office”. Desmond Jaddoo explained that this should allow young people to get their voices heard in government and, as a knock-on effect, the issues of youth unemployment, housing and environmental issues should be tackled.

However, Desmond wasn’t going to give everything away just yet, as he still hopes for a ‘yes’ vote in May’s referendum. He said, “One thing I don’t want to do is cloud the referendum at this stage. I don’t want it clouding because we want people to vote ‘yes’”.

By – Bradley Jolly (4/4/12)

The image was given to me by Desmond Jaddoo.

A profile of… Sir Albert Bore

A profile of… Sir Albert Bore

A long-standing council leader in Birmingham, who was knighted in 2002, wants to become the elected Mayor of the city if Birmingham see a ‘yes’ vote in the Mayoral Referendum in May.

Sir Albert Bore has been a councillor in Ladywood in Birmingham since 1980, and the current Labour Group leader of Birmingham City Council since 1999. He is currently also the elected Chair of the University Hospitals Birmingham NHS Foundation Trust, Selly Oak Hospital and Queen Elizabeth Hospital Birmingham.

Therefore, over the years, Sir Bore has played pivotal roles in the creation of the National Exhibition Centre (NEC) and International Convention Centre (ICC) in the regeneration of Birmingham in the 1980s and 1990s.

He also was directly involved in the creations of Birmingham Symphony Hall, National Indoor Arena (NIA), the redevelopments of Brindley Place and the Bullring as well as other successful schemes.

So much so that, in the 2002 New Year Honours, Albert Bore was knighted for his local government work.

Sir Bore studied in Birmingham, gaining a PhD in Nucleur Reactor Physics from University of Birmingham and an honorary doctorate degree at University of Aston.

He has since been a lecturer at University of Aston, before his days in local politics.

He has been member of the EU-Committee of the Regions since its creation in 1992 and has drafted legislative opinions on behalf of local government across Europe on a range of issues.

Sir Albert Bore now hopes to be further involved in the local government and continue to change Birmingham for the better if, in May, we get a ‘yes’ vote…

By – Bradley Jolly (26/3/12)

Background Information

Ask most in this country who is mayor of London and they probably all tell you the same answer – Sir Boris Johnson. Yes, London is England’s capital and by far its biggest city but, nonetheless, most in Birmingham won’t be able to tell you who the council leaders here are. That’s because council leaders in the city are not elected by voters, while Boris Johnson in London was voted in by 2,000,000 plus Londoners.

Consequently, on Thursday 3^rd May 2012, Birmingham is to have a referendum to decide whether or not the city should have a Mayor. If we vote in favour of this, parties will start choosing candidates for an election to be held in November this year.

Already, there are several people who want to stand for this role. Edgbaston MP Gisela Stuart, former Erdington MP Sion Simon, former Birmingham City Council leader Sir Albert Bore all want the Labour nomination, while Ray Egan and former council official Mirza Ahmed have both expressed desires to stand as independents.

Yardley MP John Hemming has been rumoured to stand for the Liberal Democrats and Mike Whitby, a current council leader, could well stand for the Conservative party but neither have confirmed this as yet.

We could deduce that those, like Whitby, who have yet to approve their interests to run for Mayor of Birmingham will indeed wait until the referendum results, and, as political journalist Jonathan Walker says, “it’s probably safe to assume other candidates will come forward if and when we get the ‘yes’ vote”…

By Bradley Jolly – 15/3/12