A New Mayor

Posted on by philjackman
Image thanks to Newcastleworld

The North East is getting a new mayor. Following the creation of the North of Tyne Combined Authority (NoTCA) some years ago, the new combined authority will see it expanded to cover all seven local authority areas from Northumberland, Tyneside, Wearside and Durham. The NoTCA will be subsumed into the North East Mayoral Combined Authority (NEMCA). This is a major change for the region and will affect everyone who lives or works here, hopefully for the better. 

It also bring a lot of money, including (thanks to the BBC):

  • An investment fund of £1.4bn over 30 years to support economic growth and support regeneration;
  • A budget of around £1.8bn over 30 years for adult education and skills
  • £69m investment in housing and regeneration over 30 years

The problem is that few people are aware of the change and what powers the mayor will have, despite the election looming this week.

Unbeknown to me at the time, I happened to meet one of the candidates in the school yard, dropping my granddaughter off. He told me that, of people surveyed, only 4% could name one of the six candidates, despite one of them being the existing NoTCA mayor. (I could name three).

This is an appalling situation and doesn’t bode well for democracy. Mayoral elections traditionally have low turnouts, with Tees Valley at 34% and Manchester at 34.7% last time around but why? The person elected will have significant powers over the way we live and we should all take an interest in who represents us.

Please, if you do anything on 2 May, get out and vote.

For completeness, here is a list of the candidates:

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