Salford Labour Party Website

Mayoral Team

Ian Stewart, Salford’s new City Mayor has named the mayoral team who will support him in his new role.

He has chosen a team that brings together experience and vitality, with new councillors working alongside their more experienced colleagues.

The City Mayor has legal and strategic responsibility for the operational management of the council and the development of its policies and priorities. In the City Mayor’s absence his Deputy Mayor, named as Councillor David Lancaster, assumes those responsibilities. They will be supported by two Strategic Assistant Mayors, Councillor Paula Boshell and Councillor Paul Dennett.

A further six Assistant Mayors make up a total of ten Cabinet Members with voting rights and five Assistant Mayors each with specialist areas, who will also attend Cabinet. Each Member of the Cabinet takes an individual portfolio of responsibilities.

The Cabinet makeup is as follows:

• City Mayor, Ian Stewart
  • In addition to his legal and strategic responsibilities - City regeneration, economic development, business engagement and inward investment. Greater Manchester Combined Authority Lead.
• Deputy City Mayor, Councillor David Lancaster
  • In addition to his deputising role - Integrated neighbourhoods including community safety, organisational efficiency and procurement, use of assets. Strategic overview of AGMA functions with specific responsibility for policing issues.
• Assistant Mayor Councillor Paula Boshell – Learning Skills and Employment
• Assistant Mayor Councillor Paul Dennett – Humanegement and Workplace reform
• Assistant Mayor Councillor Derek Antrobus – Strategic Planning
• Assistant Mayor Councillor Peter Connor – Adult Services and Services for Older People
• Assistant Mayor Councillor Bill Hinds – Finance and Support Services
• Assistant Mayor Councillor Gena Merrett – Housing and Environment
• Assistant Mayor Councillor John Merry – Services for Children and Young People
• Assistant Mayor Councillor Margaret Morris – Health and Wellbeing
• Assistant Mayor Councillor Stephen Coen – International Relations
• Assistant Mayor Councillor Anne-Marie Humphreys – Culture
• Assistant Mayor Councillor Roger Jones – Transport and City Region
• Assistant Mayor Councillor John Mullen – Technology
• Assistant Mayor Councillor Lisa Stone – Communication and Community Engagement

In addition the City Mayor will establish a Co-operative Commission to consider how Salford can become a Co-operative City in every sense of the meaning.

Salford’s City Mayor, Ian Stewart, said: “I have taken a great deal of care when creating my cabinet as these are the people who will help me to deliver positive change in the city. I have been very clear that my biggest aim is to build a strong future for Salford and this will be the team that will help me to deliver this.

“I know no politician can achieve anything alone. The only way to deliver positive change is by working with others in the interests of people in Salford and their families.

“We are very aware that we have a huge task ahead of us, delivering real change and benefits for the city. But this is a challenge we are ready for and now that the team has been put together, we have started to work towards creating a brighter future for the people of Salford and their families.”

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Salford’s voters have elected the first ever City Mayor. 

Ian Stewart secured 23,459 votes, beating second place candidate Karen Garrido who received 10,071 votes.

The mayoral election used the supplementary voting system, meaning voters had two choices of candidate.

After the first choice votes were counted Karen Garrido, Conservative Party candidate, received 8,055 votes (17.95 per cent) and Ian Stewart, Labour Party candidate, received 20,663 votes (46.05 per cent); meaning they moved to a second round of voting as no candidate achieved an overall majority. 

The other eight candidates were eliminated at this point.

All of the votes that were originally cast for the eight eliminated candidates were then counted again. This time the second choice candidates were counted, and any second choice votes for the remaining two candidates added to their first round total.

It was at this stage Ian Stewart gained a further 2,796 votes, bringing his total to 23,459 votes and meaning he was elected mayor. Karen Garrido received a further 2,016 votes, bringing her total to 10,071 votes.

Ian Stewart, City Mayor of Salford said: “This is a historic day for the historic city of Salford. A city with a proud and unique past. A city with challenges and an exciting, innovative and positive future.

“Our key aim will be to ensure that the people of Salford and their families genuinely share in this positive future.

“There is a clear drive for change within the party, the council and the city. This will be a change for the better, learning from past experience where our judgement could have been better and building on past Labour successes to build a new positive, innovative future for our city.”

In total 26.05 per cent of Salford’s electorate turned out to vote in the mayoral elections, which ran alongside the local elections.

The votes were counted at Salford City Stadium. The count started at 11am and the winner was announced at 4.00pm.

In the first round of voting the votes were cast as follows:

Michael Felse – English Democrats “Putting England First” - 1,616 votes (3.60 per cent) 

Karen Garrido – The Conservative Party – 8,055 votes (17.95 per cent)

Bernard Gill – UK Independence Party – 3,368 votes (7.51 per cent)

Paul Massey – Independent – 1,995 votes (4.45 per cent) 

Michael Moulding – Community Action Party – Exposing Political Fraudsters – 1,065 votes (2.27 per cent)

Joe O’Neill – Green Party – 1,273 votes  (2.84 per cent)

Eddy O’Sullivan – British National Party – 2,026 votes (4.51 per cent)

 
Norman Owen – Liberal Democrats – 2,148 votes (4.79 per cent)

 
Ian Stewart – Labour Party Candidate – 20,663 votes (46.05 per cent)

 
Pat Ward – Independent – 2,665 votes (5.94 per cent) 

A full breakdown of the results for the local and mayoral elections is available http://www.salford.gov.uk/results.htm.

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Ian Stewart

A Salford councillor elected in 2008 for the Community Action Party has cost council taxpayers £2,624.78 per meeting.

The figure came to light following a freedom of information request submitted on behalf of the Salford City Labour Party.

Now council officials are being asked to investigate whether there has been a breach of the council Code of Conduct for councillors.

And Labour’s candidate for Elected Mayor has said the case is a warning not to elect ‘novelty’ candidates.

Cllr Rick Houlton was elected for the Irlam ward in May 2008 for the Wigan-based Community Action Party although he has since become an independent.

Figures released by the Council show that since then he has attended only 11 meeting of the full city council – just above the legal minimum to prevent automatic disqualification.

He has only attended four of a possible 20 Community Committee meetings – none since March 2009 - where local councillors meet with community groups to decide local spending priorities.

Irlam Labour councillor Roger Jones said: “For someone elected on a community action platform, he has ignored the community and shows a singular lack of action.

“It is disgraceful that he is still raking in money each month with no evidence of earning that allowance by working for the electors of Irlam.”

Labour councillor David Lancaster said: “The Council’s Code of Conduct requires councillors not to bring their office or the local authority into disrepute. We believe that Cllr Houlton’s behaviour is disreputable. I will write to the chief executive to request an investigation.”

Labour’s candidate for Salford’s Elected Mayor, Ian Stewart said: “This is what happens when you have someone elected who has a rush of enthusiasm about a single issue.

“The same has happened in Wigan where the Community Action Party secured many seats but has collapsed as they have lost interest in representing the voters.

“Labour will be with the people of Salford in tough times. It is increasingly clear that now is the time to have serious people with serious ideas.

“The case of the Community Action Party shows that novelty candidates are not the answer.”

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Cllr Lancaster

Labour has called on Tory mayoral candidate to apologise after claiming in a leaflet that a government initiative would lead to more police in Salford.
Tory Karen Garrido has come under fire from the Greater Manchester Police Federation whose chairman Ian Hanson said in a radio interview: “I was aghast when I read it was a government initiative. The only government initiative is to slash funding.”
He added: “I find it absolutely incredible that a representative of a party that is bringing in cuts of 1,500 police officers is claiming it is a victory.”
Cllr Garrido’s leaflet claimed that 150 new police officers would be recruited in “our area” over the next three years.
But she admitted on radio that the phrase “our area” referred to the whole of Greater Manchester, not Salford.
She also admitted that the ‘new’ posts were replacements for massive cuts and said: “There will be 1,387 fewer officers in our area”.
Cllr David Lancaster, Labour spokesman for police on Salford council, said: “Cllr Garrido should apologise. She implied Salford was benefiting enormously from a Government police initiative.
“She has been found out and the decent thing would be to apologise for the disastrous cuts in policing we will suffer. She clearly cannot be trusted.”

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 A surprise delay to announcing a decision on the future of Burgess Farm, Walkden, has led to fears that the Tory planning minister is about to give it the go-ahead.

Labour-controlled Salford City Council refused planning permission for the housing development by Peel Holdings.

Peel appealed to communities secretary Eric Pickles to overturn Labour’s decision. He was due to announce the decision today (April 16).

But the decision has now been put back until May 10^th – a week after the local elections.

Salford Labour planning spokesman Cllr Derek Antrobus: “The date of the election was known many months in advance. It is not convincing that the reason is to avoid clashing with the election.

“This will be a betrayal of the people of Walkden who have campaigned to put off Peel’s development plans. But we always feared that the new national planning policy’s presumption in favour of ‘sustainable’ development would make it hard to resist Peel’s proposal.”

Cllr Antrobus

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