What the political parties in Bristol have to say<\/strong><\/p>\nThe revelation was not welcomed by the Greens or Liberal Democrats in Bristol, who have been in power since May last year.<\/p>\n
Greens said the decision was \u201cundemocratic and clueless\u201d, and they backed the committee model for being more transparent and collaborative.<\/p>\n
Green Councillor Heather Mack, deputy council leader, said: \u201cThis is totally at odds with the devolved powers that Labour advocate for and is an insult to Bristol. Keir Starmer clearly does not think that local people can make the best choices for themselves.<\/p>\n
“Most importantly, this will not solve the big problems we face. Greens have been asking successive governments for years for proper funding to address the many crises in local government.<\/p>\n
\u201cLabour promised change but they have no answers when it comes to the real issues local authorities and residents face \u2014 crisis in the private rental sector, SEND provision, increasing demand for adult social care and meeting net zero commitments.<\/p>\n
“All the while they are attempting to squash a rebellion of their own Labour MPs so they can plunge hundreds of thousands into poverty by slashing their benefits.<\/p>\n
\u201cThis Labour government has no plan to improve the lives of working people in Bristol, who will be rightly outraged with them once again meddling with local democratic decisions while providing no respite from 15 years of austerity.<\/p>\n
“We need proper investment in communities, funded by a tax on the ultra-rich, or this government will feel the consequences at the next election.\u201d<\/p>\n
Since taking power, the Greens added that they had improved children\u2019s services, addressed safety concerns in council housing, and started ambitious housing and transport projects.<\/p>\n
They believe a leader and cabinet model will be less democratic than the current system which sees a policy committee made up of councillors from all parties take responsibility for big decisions.<\/p>\n
Liberal Democrat Cllr Stephen Williams, chair of the public heath and communities policy committee, added: \u201cThe committee system has improved the transparency of decision-making in the council, and has allowed all councillors and parties the opportunity to shape the council\u2019s work and input into discussions and decisions early on. Unfortunately, not all parties have approached the committee system in good faith.<\/p>\n
\u201cBristol Labour, instead of coming together with the other parties to do what is best for Bristolians, have chosen not to take up the positions of responsibility that were available to them. Rather, they have been set on playing political games, preferring to be an \u2018opposition\u2019 \u2014 despite being equally involved in decision-making.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe Labour government\u2019s overriding of local democracy is a shocking move. What we need is not another costly change to the decision-making process, but for Bristol Labour to step up and play their part in the council. If the government truly cared about improving local government, they would ensure that hard-working councils are funded properly and that a fair voting system was implemented, once and for all.\u201d<\/p>\n
However, Labour welcomed the changes and said the committee system in Bristol had been \u201cnothing short of shambolic\u201d and a \u201cfailed experiment\u201d.<\/p>\n
Labour used to run the city council for eight years, with former mayor Marvin Rees blamed by some campaigners for voters scrapping the mayoral model.<\/p>\n
Since the switch, Labour declined to take up their roles as policy committee chairs, choosing instead to be in opposition to the Green-Liberal Democrat administration.<\/p>\n
They have spent the past year or so scrutinising the administration\u2019s decisions and providing often critical feedback. Cllr Tom Renhard, leader of the Labour group, said that local decision-making has not been transparent, stable nor effective.<\/p>\n
He added: \u201cLabour councillors wanted this to work and have acted as a constructive opposition \u2014 chairing groups to set up new bus routes, collaborating on a new economic strategy for the city, and submitting alternative budget plans, as a few examples, alongside our role scrutinising the administration. However, it has become apparent to everyone, regardless of their political stripes, that this system wasn\u2019t serving Bristolians effectively.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe government is right to step in \u2014 taxpayers should not be hampered with an archaic governance system that is not fit for purpose. We have seen council housing schemes scrapped in behind-closed-doors meetings, public assets sold off without a public vote or scrutiny, and councillors avoid accountability for their plans once it\u2019s clear they are unpopular. Quite frankly, Bristolians deserve better.<\/p>\n
\u201cLocal councils using one governance system will make the whole system of local government more efficient and easier for the public to understand and access. A leader and cabinet system, similar to parliament, will allow our city to have effective, timely, well-scrutinised decision-making \u2014 if the Greens get their act together.<\/p>\n
\u201cBut it\u2019s worth remembering: it wasn\u2019t the committee system that put forward proposals to close 19 libraries, sack all the lollipop people, and cut black bin collection to once every four weeks \u2014 it was the Green Party. The committee system isn\u2019t working effectively, but neither are the Green Party councillors running it.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"It’s been just over a year since the committee model was introduced, but it won’t last for longCampaigners…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":214222,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8818],"tags":[381,3893,748,393,4884,14144,528,11518,13072,285,16,3106,15],"class_list":{"0":"post-214221","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-bristol","8":"tag-bristol","9":"tag-bristol-city-council","10":"tag-britain","11":"tag-england","12":"tag-great-britain","13":"tag-green-party","14":"tag-labour-party","15":"tag-liberal-democrats","16":"tag-marvin-rees","17":"tag-politics","18":"tag-uk","19":"tag-uk-politics","20":"tag-united-kingdom"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/114746253762841583","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/214221","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=214221"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/214221\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/214222"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=214221"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=214221"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=214221"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
![](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/06\/0_BR060522mayoral_referendumPAG-106.jpg\")
Campaigners and councillors celebrating the 2022 vote to switch to a committee model, which will shortly be scrapped(Image: Paul Gillis\/Bristol Live)<\/p>\n