The Council has already responded positively to the Government’s Modernisation Agenda, introducing, in advance of legislation, a new political management structure in October 1999.  The structure is based around the Leader and Cabinet model, completed by a new Scrutiny and Standards Committee, six Area Committees, and a small number of quasi-judicial Committees.

The Local Government Act 2000 set out further requirements for local authorities in terms of modernising their political structures. 

The Government has determined that Councils like Sunderland will need to choose one of three options for leadership:

• Leader and Cabinet
• Directly Elected Mayor and Cabinet
• Elected Mayor and (non-elected) Council Manager

The City Council recognises that in the drive for democratic renewal it will be important to engage the people of the City and to ensure that the views of local people are taken into account when changes are made to political structures and mechanisms for making policy decisions.

The Council has recently undertaken a large-scale public consultation exercise on the three options entitled “Choose the Future of Your Council”.  The exercise, which was supported by a significant awareness-raising campaign, targeted every household and over 1,200 businesses, community and voluntary organisations in the City, and also all City Council staff.

Over 9,000 people completed the questionnaire.  The results of the questionnaire were sent out to all households in the City via the publication, City News.

What was said about the options

Residents were asked to number in order of preference their chosen options for leadership.  Residents gave their first choice as:

• 47.5% chose a Leader and Cabinet as their first choice
• 32.9% preferred the Mayor and Cabinet option
• 19.6% chose the Mayor and Council Manager option

This means that even though the Leader and Cabinet model was the favourite option, more than half preferred a model which included an elected mayor.

This was confirmed by looking at the first and second choice options together where support was as follows:

• 40.3% preferred the Mayor and Cabinet option
• 34.9% preferred a Leader and Cabinet
• 24.8% preferred the Mayor and Council Manager option.

What the City Council decided

Because the numbers were so close (there was no clear choice) councillors recommended that a referendum should be held.

This means that residents will have a chance to vote on whether or not they would like a directly elected Mayor.

This referendum was held in October 2001.

About the Referendum

The Results of the Referendum

More Information?

For further information please e-mail
policy.team@sunderland.gov.uk or telephone 0191 553 1154

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last updated 23/07/03