South Wales Evening Post - 8 May 2009
Swansea has a new lord mayor. But does anybody outside the council care?
That is not meant to be an insult to the new lord mayor. Councillor Alan Lloyd has been a stalwart of Swansea Council for 42 years. Congratulations to him, and we hope that he and his wife have a wonderful year as Swansea’s first citizens.
And we are not criticising the office of lord mayor. It is important that we have a figurehead who can represent the city at important events.Add to that the large sums of money the lord mayor raises each year for his or her selected charity. Clearly there are still great benefits in the post.
But when hardly anyone bothers to vote in council elections any more, we cannot pretend that the mayor-making is of much interest in the lives of councillor Lloyd’s fellow citizens.
Most people would not know the difference between the lord mayor and the council leader. Perhaps it’s time to merge the roles with an elected mayor.
