The row over the downgrading of the Lord Mayor of York has gone national – after a former leader took to the BBC airwaves to attack the plan.
As YorkMix was the first to report last Wednesday, a plan to make cutbacks to the Lord Mayor’s role is to go to a council meeting this week.
Under the scheme, the Lord Mayor will no longer be allowed to stay in the Mansion House, will be permitted to wear the chain on fewer occasions, will be expected to go to events by public transport more often, and will only be funded by the council for a set number of events.
Labour say these are common sense measures which are needed when it has to find £14m in cutbacks to save the council from bankruptcy. It would save about £10,000.
But Ian Gillies, the former council leader and a previous Lord Mayor himself, told BBC Radio Four’s Today programme on Saturday that “it’s the politics of envy”.
He said tradition would be lost. “We’ve had a Lord Mayor since the 13th century,” he told the programme. “We’ve had a Mansion House since the mid 1700s, the oldest Mansion House in England – and the Lord Mayor of York is a second only to the Lord Mayor of London.”
Presenter Nick Robinson asked why shouldn’t the mayor travel by public transport?
“I can just see the Lord Mayor in his regalia and his tricorn hat standing at the bus stop,” Mr Gillies said. “And then leaving dinners because he has to get the last bus home – if there is a last bus, because I live in a village outside York and the last bus is about half past ten.
“It’s a bit of a disgrace really.”
He added: “We went to 600 events when I was Lord Mayor. So it’s a lot of buses to get – or a lot of walking, or even on my bike.”
The former councillor was also critical of the plan to prevent future Lord Mayors from choosing their own charities to support and instead all the money raised would go to the York Community Fund.
“When I was Lord Mayor we raised £80,000 for charity. This proposal is that the Labour Party actually decide who the charity is going to be.
“And it will go to an organisation that has chief executives and what-have-you, who will take a piece off the top.”
Cllr Gillies described the £10K savings as “a drop in the ocean”. “Having done the job of the executive member for finance, and been leader of the council, there’s lots of savings that can be got from elsewhere.”