Community groups urged to join mayor debate

Jun 28 2007 By Neil Elkes, Birmingham Mail

COMMUNITY groups across the city are being urged to take up the debate over whether Birmingham should be run by an elected mayor.

B:cen, the Birmingham Community Empowerment Network, brings together more than 8,500 people involved in voluntary and community groups.

Now its city-wide membership are being urged to take up the debate over how their city is run.

They are latest group to join the debate following the Birmingham Citizens coalition of churches and community groups, the Birmingham Association of Neighbourhood Forums and the Birmingham University Guild of Stundents.

The Birmingham Mail has launched a petition calling for the people of to decide whether they want their city to be run by an elected mayor in a binding referendum.

B:cen chairwoman Naseem Akhtar said: "I think this is something we should, as a network, be considering, talking about and debating.

"We are about empowering people at the grass roots and community level, and a petition and a debate over the way this city is run. And if we believe that we should make that decision in a referendum then it is up to us to make that happen through the petition."

She praised the Mail for opening up the opportunity for people to discuss and debate the issue.

"The Mail has informed its readers about this issue and how they can go about making a difference to this city," she added.

The petition needs the support of five per cent of Birmingham's registered voters, or 36,000 people, to legally force a referendum.

If successful the referendum will give Birmingham's 700,000 people the chance to decide whether they support an elected mayor or not.

The city council leadership favours the current council leader system and has no plans for the people of Birmingham to have a referendum on the matter.