TRESA director, Suzanne Audrey, asked Mayor Marvin Rees a question at full council about the working group proposal to reopen Jubilee Pool. Her question, and the Mayor’s response, are reproduced below.
QUESTION PQ 28
Subject: Jubilee Pool
Background – Paul Smith, who was a leading cabinet member until recently, said there is a problem with democracy at Bristol City Council resulting from the Mayoral system. He said we need to look at how backbench councillors and opposition councillors can have more of a say, and the mayoral system needs more checks and balances within it so that the majority of backbench politicians do not feel like they are just window dressing.
A cross-party group of Cllrs, recently set up by you as Mayor, has requested a rapid reopening of Jubilee Pool and unanimously rejected waiting for a cabinet meeting next year. This is obviously affected by the current lock-down but the principle of reopening the pool as soon as possible remains.
Question – Given concerns about the Mayoral system undermining the voices of backbench and opposition councillors, how are you intending to implement the recommendations of the cross-party group of councillors including reopening Jubilee Pool as soon as possible?
Reply:
• I think there is some confusion about Paul’s comments. He was referring to the need to change the role of councillors in the mayoral model.
• For me, the main benefit of the Mayoral system is clear accountability to the city. For example, I was accountable for the decision on the arena because I thought the financial risk to the council was unacceptable. Whereas councillors who took easy political oppositional positions are now unaccountable and anonymous in a situation that would have exposed BCC to £160m worth of debt. Nobody can tell you who was accountable before the mayoral model was introduced.
• Regarding Jubilee Pool, the working group has again taken an easy option and made a political point without regard to the council’s stretched resources. Jubilee was closed because of reduced demand and usage during Covid and that remains the case. We will be looking at our future strategy for all our Leisure centres in the New Year to take us forward for the next decade.
• We are committed to working with anybody who wants to bring forward a sustainable community-led solution. However, our priority must be to support leisure centres which have much higher usage, such as Hengrove and Horfield Pools.