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Bristol City Council: Public to be consulted over new model

Matt Cardy/Getty Aerial shot of Bristol city centre and CliftonMatt Cardy/Getty
Bristol voters opted to ditch the role of elected mayor in a referendum earlier this year

A committee set up to decide how a city council will run is to seek the views of residents about how it should work.

The cross-party group of councillors met for the first time last week to decide how Bristol City Council should be run after the city voted to scrap the role of elected mayor.

Voters who took part in a referendum in May opted for a committee-based system.

The new working model will begin in 2024 but it is not yet clear how it will work.

The group tasked with coming up with a plan - called the committees committee - has 12 councillors from different parties and will be led by Labour councillor Helen Holland, cabinet member for adult social care.

According to the Local Democracy Reporting Service (LDRS), Ms Holland told a council meeting on 5 July: "I've been elected chair of the committee on the committee system.

"It's proportionally balanced across the council and we had our first initial meeting last week. The issue about how we engage with citizens in the work that we're doing was very high on the agenda."

Councillor Helen Holland
Helen Holland is heading the committee

Also on the working group are Labour councillors Nicola Beech, Steve Pearce and Marley Bennett; Green councillors Jenny Bartle, Lorraine Francis, Guy Poultney and Mohamed Makawi; Conservative councillors Geoff Gollop and Richard Eddy; Liberal Democrat councillor Tim Kent; and Knowle Community Party councillor Gary Hopkins.

Bristol City Council has been run by a directly-elected mayor since 2012. Current mayor, Marvin Rees, has two more years left of his second term.

Ms Holland added: "We're going to be meeting very regularly and we've had loads of meetings put into our diaries.

"That topic, about how we engage with people and how we bring the city in to discuss how this will go forward, is right up there on our agenda.

"There will be regular updates from the committees committee. Probably by the autumn there will be open sessions where we will be looking for views from the city."

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