Lib Dem Mayoral candidate backs Tara Murray and her scrap the Mayor message. Tara Murray is running for Council in the Brislington East by-election on Thursday, 16th January. 

In a statement to Bristol Council today, Mary Page said:

"The Green Party, like the Liberal Democrats, and local Conservative Party, has policy against Directly Elected Mayors, yet they failed to back the abolition of the Mayoral role motion at last month’s council. Instead, as soon as they think they have a shot at power, their values and principles are thrown away. Their Mayoral candidate will not offer the biggest act to devolve of power that we can offer Bristolians - a referendum review of the role of Mayor. Instead, they will keep the omnipotent, all-powerful Mayor position, which sidelines both elected councillors and community representatives.

I and the Bristol Liberal Democrats are pleased to see that the Conservative group have managed to lay the Golden ('egg') motion to be discussed at today's full Bristol council meeting.

Empowering the people of Bristol is a cornerstone of my campaign to Scrap the Mayor so I hope that Bristol Councillors will flock to support the 'Abolition of the position of Directly Elected Mayor' motion. 

The Lib Dem group have tabled an amendment to recognise that the opportunity to remove the directly elected role only exists because of a Parliamentary legislation amendment secured by Baroness Janke. And we're doing this because we believe we need more democracy, not less. In removing the Mayor role we can make the space for neighbourhood councils, citizens' assemblies and open scrutiny to widen participation for ordinary members of the public and their communities.

So I'm happy that #ScraptheMayor campaign has got the Conservative group flocking to join me, as anyone with a sense of humour and a thick skin is welcome to join the campaign. 

Lots of talk in the ‘state of the city’ speech but the reality is ‘what change has there actually been?’. In reality Marvin is held back by being part of the Labour Party with a Labour leadership who can't even offer a vision or decision on Brexit. 

Liberal Democrat Mayoral Candidate wants to scrap the job when elected!

Mary Page is the only candidate in Bristol's 2020 mayoral race, who wants to return control to our communities.

The mayoral system, in place since 2012, has seen inaction and indecision run rampant in Bristol City Council. The Bristol Arena project was cancelled and £12m wasted, the Clean Air plan was a year and a half late, the South Bristol recycling centre has still not been delivered, despite funding allocated in 2013, and nothing has been done to fight the climate emergency declared by the Council last year.

Mary Page, Liberal Democrat candidate for mayor, will give Bristolians the chance to abolish the job and to return power to our communities. Mary said “The role of mayor has centralised power in City Hall. This prevents communities from controlling change in their own areas. I want local people to be empowered in our city, not leave power in the hands of a mayor and a few highly paid council consultants.”