Sunderland City Council

Sunderland City Council
Civic Centre
Burdon Road
Sunderland
SR2 7DN

Tel. (0191) 520 5555

Calls may be recorded for quality and training purposes

Referendum for Elected Mayor

VOTERS SAY NO TO ELECTED MAYOR

12,209 electors, 56 % of those who turned out to vote, voted against the city having a directly elected Mayor to run the City Council. The overall turnout was 10%.

The result means that a Leader and Cabinet system will now be formally introduced to run the Council from next May.

The referendum was the culmination of a nine month programme of consultation with all households in the city along with businesses and specialist groups.

Sunderland''s 220,000 voters were the first in Tyne and Wear to be offered the chance of taking part in a referendum for an elected Mayor.

Unlike many other referenda, voters had the option of casting their vote by post or using the traditional polling station.

Counting Officer and previous Council Chief Executive, Colin Sinclair said : ''The Council felt it was important to give Sunderland voters the chance to have their say on such an important issue, especially as the results of our initial consultations proved a close run thing.

''Today''s referendum was run with the usual speed and efficiency which has made Sunderland the best in the country at running elections.

''Now that we have a clear decision, we can forge ahead with putting voters'' wishes into practice and formally adopting a Leader and Cabinet system to run the council from next May.''

last updated 06/01/04

Menu

Referendum for Elected Mayor