My First Week As Mayor
What will my first week as Mayor of Greater Manchester look like?
It will be a whirlwind. Full of meetings, planning, assessing and ensuring I stamp my authority upon my office, councils and publicly funded services. I must start the way I mean to go on.
Three years sounds like a long time but my term will go fast. I must hit the ground running and start making changes immediately. But this is easier said than done. The barrier will be internal resistance to change, compounded by the institutional inertia of the public sector. I worked for a council for a decade, and I know of what I speak.
I need to ensure what I do or say is legal. I will be sitting down with the Mayor's Office legal team to ask them to create the legal framework I need to achieve my aims. I am no fool, so I will employ an external solicitor to ensure I am not being set up or discouraged from my quest. If it is discovered that wrong advice is given, then heads will roll – meaning dismissal.
My next meeting will be with the Chief Constable of Greater Manchester Police. This will be the meeting where I discover if my job is going to be hard work or extremely hard work. Policing & Crime is my number one priority as Mayor. I need to develop a working partnership with the Chief Constable, or else replace him ASAP. I think he will love me for I intend to take off his leash and allow him to clean up Greater Manchester.
My appointment will be a great opportunity for him personally to leave a legacy and become the best Chief Constable in the UK. He will already have ideas he wants to implement – but our current Mayor is not brave enough.
I will lay out what changes I want:
- Increase in Stop & Search
- Police Community Support Officers replaced with full police officers
- Reordering of police priorities so they reflect the priorities of the general public
- Hate crime and policing the internet de-prioritised
- New recruitment and internal promotion processes developed
- New professional standards created
- New public oversight panel for police complaints
The Chief Fire Officer is also under the responsibility of the Mayor. This meeting will be about a new way forward, cutting waste, recruitment and ensuring they continue to deliver the service we all rely on.
I will appoint ten Deputy Mayors, one for each local council area. These roles will not be paid positions but held by committed local individuals who are responsive to local people. Their appointment will be in my gift as Mayor – they will be made aware that the Mayor giveth, and he can taketh away.
I will sit down with the heads of the ten councils' homelessness teams - this cannot wait. I have the plan ready to go to end rough sleeping but need help from the councils. This plan is in their interests and will remove an expensive ongoing problem for them.
Finally, I will start the public discussion on how the Mayor is held accountable by the public. Having to wait until the next election to have your say is not an appropriate system. We need an assembly, panel, committee or chamber - somewhere the general public and elected officials can scrutinise the Mayor.
It will be a busy first week. Very busy.
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