The current Mayor of Oldham, Cllr David Jones, attending the recent Twestival event in Oldham.
The role of Mayor of Oldham has cost local taxpayers more than £800,000 over the past five years, Saddleworth News can reveal.
The job is traditionally carried out by a senior councillor. He or she acts as an ambassador for the borough at functions and events, and also presides over council meetings.
Between 2005 and 2010, a total of £812,123 was spent on the position, according to figures released by Oldham Council under Freedom of Information laws.
That’s a little below the £877,249 Manchester spent on its Lord Mayor over the same period. It’s also significantly less than the £1,585,367 bill for the Lord Mayor of Leeds.
Almost half the figure for Oldham, £388,157, went on staff working in the Mayor’s office. The cost of the Mayor’s official car was £29,989, and an additional £4,520 was spent on other travel expenses.
A further £68,404 went on the extra personal allowance for the councillors who have carried out the job. The annual figure for that payment has risen from £12,956 in 2005/6 to £14,404 in 2009/10.
The data also shows that the most expensive of the five Mayors who served between 2005 and 2010 was Cllr Bernard Judge, who did the job in 2006/7. The Labour member for Royton North cost £182,312 during his time in office, over £20,000 more than the next most expensive Mayor.
By far the busiest Mayor was Cllr Kay Knox, the Liberal Democrat who represents Waterhead. She carried out 716 official engagements during 2005/6, a remarkable 229 more than Cllr Judge, who had the next highest tally.
The figures also show where the Mayors have been cutting costs. No public money at all was spent on official portrait photographs, which were done for free by the Oldham Chronicle. Also, none of the five Mayors claimed expenses for travelling outside the EU.
Here’s a table with a more detailed breakdown of the statistics by year. Only some of the specific categories which make up the overall cost are shown.
(data: Oldham Council)
The Mayor of Oldham during the 2010/11 municipal year has been Cllr David Jones, a former Labour leader of the council. He’s expected to be succeeded next year by his deputy, Cllr Richard Knowles, a Liberal Democrat who lives in Greenfield, represents Saddleworth South, and was also once the council leader.
You can read articles about the cost of the Lord Mayor of Manchester here, and the Lord Mayor of Leeds here, both from the Guardian’s Sarah Hartley.
The Oldham Council page explaining the role of the Mayor can be read here.
So, the question is: do you think the position of Mayor of Oldham is worth it? Should we keep it or scrap it? Spend less or more on it? If you’ve got a view, please leave it in the comments below this article!
I am surprised at the number of functions the Mayor fulfills. In Cllr Knox’s case, it represented almost 2 per day.
Is there anywhere we can find a list of these functions? It’s important to know specifically what the Mayor is doing, when considering whether or not they represent good value.
Simon, I’m sure the council would release a list of the functions if you asked for one under the Freedom of Information Act. I decided not to because I thought it might involve a lot of work on the part of council officers to put it together.
When making FOI requests about, say, how the council spends its money, I’m always aware that I am making the council spend even more by responding to my request! So I try to keep it as straightforward as possible. In this case I just thought it would be interesting to get the figures for Oldham out in the open, seeing as the Guardian had previously obtained the details for Manchester and Leeds.
I agree, it would be a lot of expense for minimal return. I would principally want to know, just to satisfy my own curiosity; and I’d rather not be so wasteful as to make a Freedom of Information request when I would be unlikely to do anything worthwhile with the information.
I had wondered if there was an already published list somewhere (and if you were aware of it), but I imagine there has been no need to ever publish the data.
I’ve read the explanation of the Mayor’s role on the council’s website, but perhaps someone in the know would like to comment and let us know more about what the Mayor does (not just the headline events, which are readily documented, but the hundreds of events per year that never attract media interest).