Borough residents vote to scrap directly elected mayor role

Residents of a borough council in the North East have voted in favour of scrapping the post of directly elected mayor and returning to a committee system.

In a referendum held yesterday, 7,366 residents of Hartlepool backed the change, while 5,177 voted to retain the existing arrangement. The turnout was 18%.

The vote means that Hartlepool Borough Council will move to a committee system with effect from May 2013. The current arrangement of directly-elected mayor and cabinet has been in place since 2002.

The incumbent mayor, Stuart Drummond, had won three terms. He told the BBC: "I think the mayoral system is the right system for governance, not just for Hartlepool but for anywhere.

"For me, it's the most accountable and democratic system there is. But the people of Hartlepool have been asked, they've spoken, and to be fair the public of Hartlepool are rarely wrong.”