Wirral Council cabinet to decide on governance changes

Dec 9 2009 by Liam Murphy, Birkenhead News

WIRRAL Council’s ruling cabinet will this week decide whether to press for radical changes to the way the borough is governed.

Local authorities have been told by the Government to consider introducing elected mayors or a new form of cabinet administration by the end of the year.

Either a mayor would be directly elected for four years and be able to choose a cabinet, or there would be a leader elected by the council.

Wirral Council’s leader Steve Foulkes was scathing about the response to the consultation on the changes, describing them as “pathetic”.

Just 45 people took part, with 28 (62%) favouring an elected mayor, nine respondents (20%) preferring the new-style leader and cabinet model and the remaining eight replies (17%) either failed to indicate a preference or their reply was too ambiguous.

Cllr Foulkes said: “There was no clear lead from the public, and as has been found in other boroughs, the response has been quite truly pathetic.”