Ten former Plymouth mayors attack council leader
TEN former Lord Mayors of Plymouth have attacked council leader Vivien Pengelly for "trying to control the mayoralty".
In a letter signed by all ten – including Gordon Draper, who died last month – Mrs Pengelly is "implored" not to "jeopardise the political independence of the Lord Mayor".
The Herald understands that the issue will be raised at Monday's meeting of the full city council.
The cross-party hospitality committee, which traditionally organised the Lord Mayor's diary, was abolished soon after Mrs Pengelly came to power in 2007.
In their letter the former Lord Mayors, all understood to be Labour Party supporters, say: "Some of us are still active in our communities, with others retired from public life, but we all feel the need to speak out against the alarming way in which the Lord Mayoralty of Plymouth is being compromised.
"Plymouth's Lord Mayor gives all our citizens a chance to unite around one person, regardless of their political views, at important times in the city's calendar.
"The Lord Mayor impartially chairs city council meetings, greets members of the Royal Family when they visit, and lays the wreath on Remembrance Day on behalf of all Plymothians."
They say they are extremely concerned at the way in which Mrs Pengelly is "inappropriately involving herself in events and trying to control the Mayoralty in ways which threaten the much-loved neutrality of the office".
The letter adds: "She sidelined the Lord Mayor after the recent Freedom of the City event, insisted on marching directly behind him on Lord Mayor's day, and even stood in for the Deputy Lady Mayoress recently.
"On top of this, she has taken total control of the mayor's budget and diary. This has got to stop.
"One of her first actions on becoming leader was to abolish the much respected cross-party committee that used to handle these matters and give all power to herself in consultation with serving ex-Lords Mayor. We were shocked to discover that she hasn't met with them once.
"We implore Mrs Pengelly to spend her time attending to the serious problems our city faces, and not jeopardise the political independence of the Lord Mayor of Plymouth."
The letter is signed by Alderman Fred Johnson (Lord Mayor 1974-75), Alderman Peter Whitfeld (1984-85), Alderman Gordon Draper (1988-89), Alderman Jack Finnigan (1990-91), Alderman Ron Simmonds (1992-93), Alderman Sylvia Bellamy (1996-97), Cllr Ian Gordon (2002-03), Cllr Claude Miller (2004-05), Alderman Michael Fletcher (2006-07) and Cllr Brian Vincent (2008-09).
Mrs Pengelly said: "I recognise how much the people of Plymouth value the function of Lord Mayor and I am one of the strongest supporters of the office regardless of whichever party they represent on council.
"I am also one of the staunchest defenders of the impartiality of this position.
It is very sad that the former Lord Mayors have been misled in this way as the allegations in the letter are blatantly untrue.
"It's such a shame that at a time when Plymouth and the rest of the country face difficult times as a result of the recession that the councillors who instigated this letter are trying to politicise issues around the Lord Mayor.
"I know that most families in Plymouth have much more pressing concerns and I as leader, and the council as whole, will continue to focus on addressing them."
39 Comments
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by susan tyler, Plymouth
Wednesday, July 08 2009, 7:27AM
“For Godsake Labour Councillors and ex Lord mayors grow up,
there will soon be no Labour Councillors left in this city anyway”
by Professional Loafer, Loafing Off of course
Monday, July 06 2009, 3:57PM
“Viv/Tudor - GROW UP!!
You were all elected by the people and you can both be removed by the people.
Neither party is better then the other. The Lord Mayor should be an impartial voice. Viv you have done nothing good for Plymouth since you were elected. Tudor you had your shot and blew it. Do the honourable thing and resign and let new blood run this city.
Obviously neither of you can.”
by chaos, hells kitchen
Monday, July 06 2009, 2:15AM
“and the words of chaos once spoken soon dethrone the children of man, so many corrupt from number 10 to buck palace from the met to the mayor of this once fair city. How many more must fall before the leaders of this world realise, they can steal from me, they can blacken my name, and keep my love far from my side, they can leave my body beaten and broken and yet i rise anew, aye i may be injured, my memories scattered throughout time but i stand as they fall i grow stronger as they are weakened by their own greeds and lies, so tell me how long will they keep the man in black tied and bound, a secret known by so many and yet so few ...”
by tinks, Plymouth
Sunday, July 05 2009, 8:49PM
“Maybe if these councillors put as much effort into sorting out this citys problems as they do into party point scoring, people would have more respect for them.
As for the position of Lord/Lady Mayor, I feel it should have no political affiliation at all. There must be some way of choosing a Mayor without any of the political parties having a say.”
by alex, plymouth
Sunday, July 05 2009, 7:58PM
“Pengelly and Evans, two little porkers who want to be a ..Mega Porker...MP”
by Ted, Plympton
Sunday, July 05 2009, 7:56PM
“Why do some of these comments seem to attack the leader of the opposition? If he did not question policy then he would not be doing his job. The same would apply to the present leader of the council, if she was in opposition. It is not the opposition that is making these policies, it is the present tory council. (i.e Selling Citybus, possibly increasing the rates for road drainage and putting in jeopardy the independence of the Lord Mayor's office. It is the easiest thing in the worId to be critical, but it is a little more difficult to be constructive. I can see by your comments, that you are not 'sitting on the fence' , so maybe you could enlighten the readers here, with constructive critisism, as to why you think this tory council is correct in it's actions.”
by johnno, pennycomequick
Sunday, July 05 2009, 7:25PM
“pengelly is getting to big for her boots , she should remember all her pre election promises which she never and didn't intend to keep”
by stan the man, ham
Sunday, July 05 2009, 6:23PM
“pity the Labour party can't find something more important to think of - what about Labour's recession, the naval base, the effect on Plymouth? All they have done is to hoodwink 10 party hacks!”
by Wendy Gray, plymouth
Sunday, July 05 2009, 5:23PM
“I agree with disgruntled plymothian. I think independent councillers would be just that ....idependent! They do not have to tow the party line and do as they are told, they can fight for those who elected them without fear of reprisal.
This would be true democracy, something we need more of.”
by Ernie, Plymstock
Sunday, July 05 2009, 4:18PM
“Pretty ironic that it's only the useless labour party that is trying to make a meal out of it.
Tudor is so desperate and useless he's using retired ex-labour mayors to do his work.
Reality is that Tudor is so weak compared to Viv that he is unable to challenge her politically. What a complete waster.
Most of the bloggers on this site are obviously labour councillors or members of the labour party.
I think it's great, do your best the lady is not for moving.
Viv, keep it up, as long as we do not have a labour controlled council we'll all be better off.
Keep the faith”