Councillors to consider mayoralty costs
The findings
of the The Mayoralty Task Group which has been looking at
Scarborough Borough Council’s Mayoral Service will be presented to
Cabinet at its meeting on Tuesday 14 February 2012.
As part of the council’s
budget consultation in 2010 residents were asked which budgets
should be reduced and which increased. The results showed that
residents felt the Mayoralty and civic budgets could be cut and in
response to this savings have been made by reducing administrative
support provided to this service.
In response, the Council’s
Cabinet requested the Resources Scrutiny Committee review the
Mayoralty and that process commenced at its meeting on 13 September
2011. The Committee set up a task group to review the work of the
Mayor and to seek to identify potential savings which would not
negatively affect the service.
In his report to the
Committee of 13 September 2011 the Council’s Head of Legal and
Support Services suggested the mayoral chauffeur service be
included within the review.
The task group gathered
evidence both written and in person from people with experience of
the Mayoral Service, both within and outside the council and gave
members of the public the opportunity to attend a meeting to make
comments. The group also made comparisons with what other
local authorities do.
The task group produced a
report of its findings and presented these to the Resources
Scrutiny Committee which made various proposals for saving money
within this service including discontinuing the Chauffeur Service
currently provided for the Mayor and increasing the number of
engagements to which the Mayor transports himself and only
providing the facility of a driver and car where it is impractical
for the Mayor to drive themselves.
The Task Group reported to
the Resources Scrutiny Committee meeting on 24 January 2012.
The Resources Scrutiny Committee referred the Task Group report to
Cabinet for consideration at its meeting next week. However, the
Resources Scrutiny Committee has also made its own recommendations
to Cabinet, namely:
- A feasibility study be carried out on the possibilities of
leasing or sponsorship of a Mayoral car as a potential long term
solution
- The annual Mayor Making evening reception be discontinued and
replaced with a smaller scale lunch event with a reduced guest
list
- The civic heads and business guests previously invited to Civic
Day and Civic Luncheon during the annual Scarborough Cricket
Festival be invited instead to a day of corporate entertainment
during the festival
- Consideration be given to reducing the number of days of
‘corporate entertainment’ for business and the community at the
Scarborough Cricket Festival to two days
- Councillors to choose a single day they would prefer to attend
the Cricket Festival
- A more structured performance management measure be established
for events attended by the Mayor, for example that community events
take priority over civic only functions
- The Mayoral theme be formally linked to the council’s corporate
objectives
Ian Anderson, Scarborough
Borough Council’s Head of Legal and Support Services, has been
overlooking the task group’s progress. He said: “Although members
of the Resources Scrutiny Committee have not recommended that the
Mayoral Chauffeur Service be discontinued, savings still need to be
made and Cabinet will have a difficult decision ahead of it.”
There has been a Mayor for Scarborough since 1836 and a Mayor
of the Borough since 1974. He or she acts as an ambassador
and has both a democratic and ceremonial role to perform not only
for the council but also the borough. The Mayor has various
roles which include community engagement, particularly with schools
and young people; promoting the borough for tourism and business;
attending key events as the Queen’s representative and acting as
the town’s first citizen.