MELKSHAM Town Council has voted in favour of introducing a new town council leader role.
The voluntary role of leader, will have no executive powers, but will be responsible for overseeing the strategic plan for the council. The role of mayor will remain and continue as a ceremonial position.
A majority of nine councillors voted in favour of the new leadership model, whilst five voted against, and one councillor abstained.
Explaining the advantages of the new council structure, cllr Vanesa Fiorelli said at last week’s full town council meeting, “As we as a council continue to grow, we have reflected on the fact that the role of mayor and deputy mayor is looking very different to what it should actually be, which is purely ceremonial.
“And as we get bigger, the workload is getting bigger as well. We are essentially splitting the role – we will have the mayor and deputy mayor who will purely deal with the ceremonial aspects of the council; and the leader, and potential deputy leader, who will act as a sounding board for the back office, admin, and supporting the officers.”
In response to concerns that the role of leader would fall to the leader of the majority political party, which is currently the Liberal Democrats, cllr Fiorelli continued, “This is not about politics, this is about managing the council that we have got – not just for now but for the future. We are getting bigger and we need to put actions in place now to start managing that.
“The system we have now, where the mayor is basically doing everything, is not working and is not effective. So we need to be proactive.”
It is yet to be confirmed when a new leader will be elected but one proposal is that a leader could be elected at the next full council meeting, which takes place on Monday 20th January.
Describing the role of leader, the town council’s ‘standing orders’ says, “The role of leader of council is to provide leadership of the council, but with no executive powers; act as a liaison between the town clerk and council in indicating priorities and programmes for inclusion in council business; be responsible for working with other councillors as appropriate to outline the council strategy; be first point of contact for the town clerk when a policy response is needed.”
