UKH

Anyone seen this?

The aim of the Sheffield People's Petition is to get the Council to change from the current 'strong leader' Cabinet model, where a Cabinet of 10 people make 98% of the decisions in Sheffield, to a more democratic and transparent decision-making committee-based model.

If 5% of Sheffield electorate sign that makes it legally binding, so it's not just any old fluffy petition. I've signed, but I've heard the criticism that it would just result in more bureaucracy. But a bit more transparency can only be a good thing surely?

https://www.itsoursheffield.co.uk/
https://www.facebook.com/groups/ItsOurCitySheffield/

Absolutely. Have a like. 

Presumably this initiative does not have the backing of any of the parties? If so, all you'd need to do is make sure they put it in their manifesto and then vote for them.

It's a non party-political campaign. It's not about which party is in power, it's about communities being listened to and represented by their elected councillors. At the moment councillors who aren't in the cabinet have almost no decision-making input as far as i understand it

I may be wrong but isn't it up to the ruling group how they organise themselves? If so, is the absence of a committee system just something this current group has decided upon and if another party/ group were in power might it be different?

Regarding decision making while some stuff would normally get decided by committee, a lot of stuff will need approved by the council s a whole. As a matter of interest was it one particular thing that sparked this off?

I'm not quite sure what you want the citizens committees to do. If I read the first web page literally it sounds like they want to transfer decision making away from elected representatives into the hands of a citizens committee. If so how would people get onto a committee, would the process be any more democratic than the system we currently have in the UK?

They are not citizen's committees, they are committees made up of Councillors. The decisions are currently made by the Cabinet rather than by the Council as a whole.

The wording of the petition is “We, the undersigned, being local government electors for the area of Sheffield City Council, to whom this petition is addressed, seek a referendum on whether the council should be run in a different way by one or more committees made up of elected councillors.”

Thanks. I'd had a long drive back from Kintail yesterday and was a bit knackered when I was trying to make sense of it all.

It'll be interesting to see how it goes and what happens the next time council elections come up. Is there a general feeiling of dissatisfaction with the council in Sheffield?

They are going the wrong way - they should be petitioning for a single person to make all the decisions for the people of Sheffield - the current mayor of Sheffield Magid Magid

I'd say there is, the tree felling saga is a big cause of it, with information being withheld about the details of the contract with AMEY - with it being denied by the council that there was a tree felling target, before it emerging that there is a target (as opposed to managing the trees in line with 'best practice' guide lines), with legislation being misused to try and curtail what protesters can do/how thy can gather (with misleading comments - or lies - from council members appearing in the city papers insinuating violence and public order infringements) and with the general upkeep of the city's roads being pretty pitiful, too. 

I think the way they've approached the felling of Sheffield's trees has played a large role in the dissatisfaction, with how the council have obfuscated and misled, and been generally evasive. IIRC they changed their hours of being in session, so that it's harder for (as many) members of the public to attend too. 

Would love to sign, but I don’t have a Facebook account. 

Democratic?

A bit problematic that. He holds a purely honorary position. Of course the city region has an elected mayor, Dan Jarvis. 

Whilst, I'm unconvinced on the the merits of the campaign, plus I don't live in Sheffield. You don't need to be on Facebook to sign the petition.

You don't need a FB account.

To respond (belatedly) to a number of points:
The 'strong leader' Cabinet model was imposed by (I believe, I may be wrong) the Blair government.

The Localism Act of 2011 provides for citizens to change this. If a petition is presented to the Council signed by at least 5% of the local electorate (20,956 names in the case of Sheffield), the Council must hold a referendum on changing the model of governance.
This has already happened in several locations already, but I can't remember where off the top of my head.

Haha I can't think of anyone better to operate a benevolent dictatorship. What could possibly go wrong?

Online petition (not Facebook) here: https://www.itsoursheffield.co.uk/

There are also paper petitions out and about. But if you're on here, you shouldn't have a problem with the online version