Last words as city voters go to polls

REFERENDUM ON ELECTED MAYOR BEING HELD TODAY

- By ALISON STEPHENSON

PLYMOUTH voters will today go to the polls to decide if they want a directly elected mayor for the city.

Polling stations - 111 of them across the city - will be open from 7am to 10pm.

Electors will cast their vote on whether the authority should be run by a leader who is an elected councillor chosen by the full council, which is the current system, or a mayor elected by the public, who is not required to be part of a political party.

The referendum, costing £410,000, is taking place because earlier this year more than 10,000 people in Plymouth signed a petition in support of it. The Mayor for Plymouth campaign was instigated by businessman Angus Forbes.

The government has said it intends to scrap city mayors but a new act of parliament has to be passed for this to happen.

If the people of Plymouth choose to have a directly elected mayor on Thursday, an election to decide who that is will be postponed by a year to May 2027 to allow the English Devolution Bill to go through parliament.

The Plymouth Knows Better campaign, which includes some prominent Plymouth Labour councillors, has called the referendum a "waste of money" saying minister of state for local government and English devolution Jim McMahon's statement three weeks ago confirming that no new city mayors would be created under new laws made the process "entirely redundant".

The 13 city mayors that currently exist will remain.