Rye may not be Manchester, Teesside or London but the role of mayor is still an important institution, especially as more and more responsibilities are devolved to local town councils. If we are to keep Rye as the unique living and tourist destination that it now is we all need to continue to adapt to changing social, economic and environmental conditions.
This requires strong and enthusiastic local leadership with a dynamic plan for the town from both businesses and governmental institutions. The mayor should be at the centre of all this, acting as a champion for Rye, and a catalyst for bringing us all together in activities and projects that benefit the community and local businesses, as well as making Rye a top destination to visit.
As you will have seen in a recent letter published in Rye News and a number of comments which followed, people are very passionate about the appointment of our mayor and the process is underway to appoint our next mayor, with either a further year of service from Andi Rivett, or a new candidate.
Whoever it turns out to be, the next mayor must be a strong and enthusiastic leader with a clear agenda for doing what they can to ensure Rye is fit for purpose. It is, of course, important that the process in making this important decision is both transparent and designed to ensure that Rye gets the leadership it needs and deserves.
But, how many of us know what the process is or how it works? We asked Richard Farhall, Rye town clerk who kindly responded as follows:
What is the process for appointing the mayor of Rye?
At its Annual Meeting or First Meeting (if a newly-elected council), held every May, Rye town council has a statutory duty to firstly elect a chairman for the municipal year. Unless the councillor elected resigns, passes away, or becomes disqualified from acting as a councillor, their period of office lasts until they are re-elected or another councillor is elected chairman.
In the same way that a parish council which is a town is permitted to call itself a ‘town council’ so the councillor who is elected chairman may call themselves mayor. This is the standard practice in Rye, hence the Annual/First meeting being known as Mayor Making.
Because the Rye mayor is not appointed by the electorate (unlike, for example, the directly-elected mayors of London or Manchester), Rye town councillors only are allowed to elect our local mayor. Members of the public have no statutory role in this process – although they are legally entitled to attend (and observe) the Mayor Making meeting.
A parish council chairman has few statutory duties – principally, (if present) chairing meetings of the council and annual parish/town meeting – and receiving the written resignations of councillors. Their responsibilities include chairing meetings effectively (in accordance with the council’s rules and statute) and representing the council. The latter is particularly significant in Rye because of the town’s strong civic ceremonial tradition.
There are no statutory restrictions on how many times a councillor may be elected chairman/mayor. Parish councillors elsewhere have been re-elected as chairman for decades!
Like some other town councils, in Rye, the convention is that a mayor serves two (usually) consecutive years. However, this is a convention only and cannot be enforced. The thinking is that it takes a year or so to become familiar with the annual cycle of council business – and the civic role of mayor – leaving another year to carry out the role confidently and to develop it. There is a local convention also that a deputy mayor serves two years. By standing in for the mayor occasionally this helps ease them into the mayoralty. That said, though helpful, this ‘succession planning’ is not recognised in law. In fact, there is no statutory obligation for the council to appoint a vice-chairman/deputy mayor.
Although, legally, a chairman/mayor may be appointed at a properly-convened meeting of the full council only, in Rye, the custom is to informally appoint a mayor elect for the coming year in December and a deputy mayor elect in March. The purpose of appointing a mayor elect is solely to provide an indication of which councillor is likely to be appointed, lawfully, at the Annual/First meeting of the council in May. This enables the Town Hall office to work with the mayor elect, should that councillor wish to ‘personalise’ the Mayor Making day.
Because appointing a mayor for the coming municipal year, before May, would be unlawful, the appointment of a mayor elect has to be undertaken outside of a formal council meeting.
At the December council meeting, councillors appoint a mayor elect during the adjournment. This means that none of the council’s rules – or the statutory framework within which the council operates – applies.
There is no agreed process for appointing a mayor elect. It is normally straightforward because there is commonly just the one candidate – the current mayor (if wishing to serve a second term), or the current deputy mayor. If there is any competition it is more likely to be for the position of deputy mayor elect, held in March.
Typically, the appointment of the mayor elect entails a councillor being proposed and seconded – sometimes with the proposer (at least) speaking in favour of their nominee – before, if there are no other candidates, the sole nominee being declared appointed.
Given that the current mayor has made known his wish to seek a third term as mayor – and the current deputy mayor will be nominated also at the council meeting on December 11 - a number of councillors are looking to be afforded the opportunity to ask the candidates questions, hear why the candidates wish to be mayor in 2024-25 - and discuss the principle of a ‘third term’, before moving to an informal vote. At the time of writing, it is not known when, during the evening, the appointment of a mayor elect will take place and what the process will actually be.
Richard Farhall
Rye town clerk
The issue of appointing the next mayor is an important topic to address and Rye News encourages interested members of our community to attend the next important council meeting, next Monday 11 December, to view local democracy in action and take part in or witness an important decision making process.
