From Wikinews, the free news source you can write!
This article requires pre-publication review by an uninvolved reviewer (one not substantially involved in writing the article). –Article last amended: Jul 18 at 18:52:25 UTC (history) |
| This article requires pre-publication review by an uninvolved reviewer (one not substantially involved in writing the article). –Article last amended: Jul 18 at 18:52:25 UTC (history) |
Friday, July 18, 2025
Plymouth — Voters narrowly chose by 52% on Thursday to retain the city council’s current leader and cabinet system against a directly elected mayor.
The referendum has been a strong political topic in the city, with critics in the Plymouth Knows Better campaign saying that the mayoral system has failed in other instances. It has also been argued that the referendum was a waste of money, with it having cost £410,000 and the Government moving towards scrapping the system and pausing all changes between local government governance models while options are considered.
Leader of the pro-mayoral movement Angus Forbes said “Democracy was absolutely trampled on – let’s make that absolutely clear” expressing his frustration with the accused intervention by central government.
The referendum came amid local government reorganisation efforts by central government, aiming to abolish “two-tier” authorities and replace them with unitary authorities, of which Plymouth is one.
The proposed mayoral system is separate from the move by the government to create more combined authorities with directly elected mayors.
