Why do we need a mayor in Middlesbrough?

TheLodger said:
As I keep saying.
I am not talking for other councillors.
The way the process works meant an alternative would have been offered, but only after the mayors budget falls.
and Sadly not, as I said before absolute power corrupts, which is one reason we should do away with the position of mayor.
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Is the budget vote preceded by debate and discussion or was the meeting a straightforward accept/reject the proposed budget?
 
johnsmithsno2 said:
Shithead, Lodger? I find it distasteful enough that you use this forum as your personal campaigning platform but the pathetic name-calling is a new low even for you. Every time a politician is murdered in this country we have a few weeks of promises to take the nastiness out of politics and then some people can't help reverting to type.
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every time a politician is murdered.. six since the Second World War btw

Calls for nastiness to be taken out of politics always seems to come from a dreadful politician who is facing criticism or being held to account.. notice how the reduction in nastiness never applies to politicians and their actions against the British public.

Unfortunately pathetic name-calling goes hand in hand with anything to do with Andy Preston.. his latest social media offering tells how North Ormesby is full of slobs who go rifle through bins! Descriptions of the feral youth of Middlesbrough are far too regular and do. I thing for the reputation of this town or the stigma that is often attached to young people from Middlesbrough looking for work.

Bad decisions have come from the council both with and without a mayor, from short term quick fixes with no long term plan to expensive vanity projects and catastrophic land grabs and giveaways.. for me Andy Preston has been the worst of a pretty bad bunch.
 
newyddion said:
every time a politician is murdered.. six since the Second World War btw

Calls for nastiness to be taken out of politics always seems to come from a dreadful politician who is facing criticism or being held to account.. notice how the reduction in nastiness never applies to politicians and their actions against the British public.

Unfortunately pathetic name-calling goes hand in hand with anything to do with Andy Preston.. his latest social media offering tells how North Ormesby is full of slobs who go rifle through bins! Descriptions of the feral youth of Middlesbrough are far too regular and do. I thing for the reputation of this town or the stigma that is often attached to young people from Middlesbrough looking for work.

Bad decisions have come from the council both with and without a mayor, from short term quick fixes with no long term plan to expensive vanity projects and catastrophic land grabs and giveaways.. for me Andy Preston has been the worst of a pretty bad bunch.
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He also likes to couple his name with house closures that he claimed the police done when it was the council, a department that is going to face a million pound cut = cost of the crown and the stamp duty.
 
Redlips said:
Why abstain and not vote no?
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Yes I voted, I abstained like all the 18 that didn’t support the mayors budget, by abstaining it was showing willing to council officers who would have had 10 days to provide a budget that could pass, that with work we would have been able to agree a budget.
 
Redlips said:
It is so obvious the mayors media team are using the platform.

Can see it a mile off.
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It's amazing that the overt sleaze is being condoned, or rather that those in the know who are calling it out are being personally attacked.

Getting back to the original question it's quite obvious that having an elected mayor is doing exactly what it was designed for, to cause division and hold back the development of the area through continued austerity.

Public money will be used to allow a few to make some easy cash.
 
Redlips said:
He also likes to couple his name with house closures that he claimed the police done when it was the council, a department that is going to face a million pound cut = cost of the crown and the stamp duty.
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He’s dreadful.. it’s not a left or right thing, no Labour conspiracy. He’s really bad, people might be friends with him, he might even have good intentions.. but he is really bad at being Mayor of Middlesbrough. I think folks should be able to say that without somehow being tied into the completely unrelated murder of 6 MPs since 1945.
 
JackG said:
Is the budget vote preceded by debate and discussion or was the meeting a straightforward accept/reject the proposed budget?
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TheLodger said:
The meeting was to accept or reject the budget.
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I'm pretty sure I watched a bit of debate and discussion prior to the vote. Or at least, several statements giving the opportunity to influence the vote.
Or maybe it was just a really odd karaoke.
 
newyddion said:
but he is really bad at being Mayor of Middlesbrough.
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He's a sketchy property developer (aren't they all). That's what he's in it for. I wish I could find the article that was doing the rounds a while ago showing the patchwork of land owned by 'associates' in Middlesbrough that are ripe for development - once the pesky council are out of the way and tax payers cash has been handed over of course.
 
ThePrisoner said:
He's a sketchy property developer (aren't they all). That's what he's in it for. I wish I could find the article that was doing the rounds a while ago showing the patchwork of land owned by 'associates' in Middlesbrough that are ripe for development - once the pesky council are out of the way and tax payers cash has been handed over of course.
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Yeah, I don't get how elected officials can get their hands on property when in office and avoid prison! not just property.. but land that they have control over and the power to make decisions over. not good at all stinks to high heavens.

no matter we're all scumbags, slobs and ferral animals anyway.. what would we do with public spaces.
 
TheLodger said:
Good question.

We don't need a mayor of Middlesbrough.

Question should have been is, why do we have a mayor of Middlesbrough.

The constitution allows a residents referendum, which must be held a minimum of 10 years apart to change the make up of the council

10 years ago, Ray Mallon (remember him) said we should have a referendum on whether we should have a mayor or just a council leader.
The Labour group campaigned heavily, we did market stalls and paid for a leaflet to all houses in the town to abolish the mayors position.

A chap named Andrew Preston campaigned to keep the position of elected Mayor and stated he wasn't interested in the post personally, but believed that someone should be responsible for what the council did.

He won, and put up for every election since, losing the first one to Dave Budd.

He won the next and the rest is history, but even as mayor, he has never accepted responsibility for what the council does, even tonight after 4 years he chose to be a shithead and blamed council officers for the mess he has got the council in.

The 10 year rule ends this autumn.

I shall be campaigning to abolish the position of elected mayor this autumn and demand we have a referendum on that question!

I shall do so and say that now, before the election of the new mayor this May. We have a great chance of winning and ending with a Labour Mayor, regardless I will be campaigning to remove that position because as proved; absolute power corrupts ....
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Shithead?
Classy.
 
Rofesleg said:
OK.
Unprofessional then. However you want to phrase it I wouldn't have expected that on a public forum.
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All of that goes out of the window when your talking about such an unprofessional mayor who uses such disrespectful language to describe the people of Middlesbrough.

If anything as the head of the council you would expect nothing less from councillors as he sets the tone.
 
newyddion said:
All of that goes out of the window when your talking about such an unprofessional mayor who uses such disrespectful language to describe the people of Middlesbrough.

If anything as the head of the council you would expect nothing less from councillors as he sets the tone.
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If that is the case then it's a pity they feel the need to join in and don't rise above it.
At least it can be said they're all as bad as each other I suppose.
It's a poor state of affairs when our public officers are reduced to name calling and bad language.
 
Rofesleg said:
If that is the case then it's a pity they feel the need to join in and don't rise above it.
At least it can be said they're all as bad as each other I suppose.
It's a poor state of affairs when our public officers are reduced to name calling and bad language.
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It’s not joining in.. and I don’t think they are as bad as each other. Far from it.

Our mayor is dreadful and he’s quite rightly been labelled as such. I don’t get why we need to put on heirs and graces to call out bad politicians and how by doing that we are somehow tarred with the same brush and somehow just as culpable for their actions.

It’s a classic toddler move.. I know you are, but what am I?
 
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