Salford votes in favour of an elected mayor

This is an archived news story from January 2012

The electorate in Salford has voted to elect a mayor in the city. 18.1 per cent of the city's electorate cast their vote in the referendum, on Thursday 26 January, with 17,344 votes casts in favour of an elected mayor and 13,653 against.

A mayoral election will now be held on Thursday 3 May 2012 alongside the local government election. The referendum was called after the Chief Executive, Barbara Spicer, received a valid petition signed by more than five per cent of the city's electorate.

The Local Government Act 2000 states that the council is legally obliged to hold a referendum if more than five per cent of the electorate call for it. The public were asked the following question: Should the electors for the area of Salford elect a Mayor who, with a Cabinet, will be in charge of our local services and lead Salford City Council?

Chief Executive of Salford City Council, and Counting Officer for the referendum, Barbara Spicer, said: "The referendum needed to return a simple majority and the majority is in favour of the elected mayor. Now that this decision has been made we will start making plans for the mayoral elections in May."

Date published: Friday, 27 January 2012
Reference number: 12-3102

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