Ross Martin: We need mayors to deliver real change now

Published on Tuesday 15 September 2009 21:16

SCOTLAND'S cities are facing their biggest test for a generation. As the aftershock of the global economic meltdown feeds through into severe restraint of public-sector finance, we need to be confident that our cities face up to the challenge.

The fear is that it is impossible for our locally elected politicians to debate and decide by committee how best our cities can tackle these very testing times head on. In short, there is something fundamentally wrong with our system of civic leadership.

Our city councils have gorged on growth budgets almost since their creation in 1996 and now, all of a sudden, the funding tap has been switched off. As we prepare for the upturn, there is little evidence that the political leaderships in our cities are equipped to take the tough decisions that bring about real and lasting change. A different democracy is required.

There are lessons for Scotland from the great cities of the world as they begin to tackle these same issues. In learning those lessons, we have to ask what are the chances of our political system heeding them and implementing any required change in time to make a positive impact and avoid catastrophe.

Tough decisions require strong leadership. There is a case to be made that Scotland's cities benefit from the election of powerful mayors, or provosts, if you like.

Over the lifetime of the city council in Edinburgh, citizens often complain about the lack of bold initiatives that really make a difference. Where game-changing projects have been promoted, they have often come to nought.

Why is that? What makes Scotland's capital uniquely ill-equipped to tackle change effectively? The answer is simple: Edinburgh does not have an elected mayor.

Tough, decisive and, almost by its nature, initially unpopular, change cannot be designed around a committee table. Local, short-term interest gets in the way of the large-scale change required to deliver long-term, sustainable service improvement.

Whether debating school closures designed to better match the supply of places to the emerging demand for them in an energetic pursuit of excellence, or introducing congestion charging to generate huge revenue sums for public transport projects to get people efficiently to work, locally elected councillors will always seek to protect their own patch. City mayors can see the big picture.

As London mayor, Ken Livingstone sought a popular mandate through his manifesto commitment for the congestion charge and then delivered a scheme that even his successor, the bold Boris Johnson, dare not undo. In Edinburgh, we are still trying to work out how to pay for the trams, and arguing over whose responsibility they are.

A raft of other examples can be found along the road to reform that leads out of the capital, cast aside, bold political action was gradually squeezed out by democratic timidity.

Housing stock transfer: failed. The creation of a modern transport interchange at Waverley: failed. The redevelopment of the world-famous Princes Street and its incredible city centre gardens against the stunning backdrop of Edinburgh Castle: failed. Even a shared stadium for Hearts and Hibs ( la AC and Inter Milan): failed. The list is never-ending.

Scotland's other cities have fared no better. In Aberdeen, the council has stumbled from budget crisis to budget catastrophe and back again, still with no apparent end in sight.

In Dundee, the lack of strong civic leadership and the political in-fighting culminated in the capitulation and transfer of the provost from his lifelong affiliation to a different team.

In Inverness, the local council has established a "city committee", which in democratic terms pushes all the right buttons, but in reality has no real devolution of power from the parent Highland Council.

In Stirling, the council's major challenge – how to grow the city and its surrounding region – suffered grievously from committee-ism and local vested interests, with the choice of the "least bad option" of plonking a 3,000-house super-scheme out of sight and out of mind on the other side of the motorway.

So is it possible for any committed collection of councillors to drive real, lasting change from around the committee table? "Glasgow does," some might say.

Perhaps not, as Glasgow's council leader, Steven Purcell, is treated outside and to a large extent inside the city chambers, as a city mayor without the formality of the title.

Preparation for the Commonwealth Games, apprenticeships for all young Glaswegians who want one, the completion of the missing M74 road link, modern purpose-built schools and hospitals (following a robust programme of closures to remove spare capacity), the Clyde Gateway. All were delivered through strong political leadership – just like a mayor.

The conclusion to all of this is obvious: the time has come for Scotland's cities to join the family of nations by electing mayors.

It is certainly an idea that is finding increasing, cross-party political traction. Labour introduced city mayors in England.

The Tories have now endorsed the concept for the whole of the UK.

The Liberal Democrats are against, but would surely trade city mayors for greater proportional representation at Holyrood or its introduction at Westminster.

And what of the SNP?

In preparation for the independence referendum, it is essential that the SNP make the case that Scotland's economy can stand on its own two feet. This relies on our cities being the engines of sustainable economic growth; which is, after all, the Scottish Government's central policy purpose.

As ministers ponder the possibility of introducing such a radical change, perhaps they will ask themselves whether Bonn, Paris and New York are wrong in their belief that city mayors play a crucial part in the drive to pull their cities out of recession?

Can we introduce elected mayors for Scotland's cities? Yes, we can.

Or, as someone else once said, "It's time."

&#149 Ross Martin is policy director at the Centre for Scottish Public Policy