thumb|Painting of John Frederick Winnicott, mayor of [[Plymouth in the early 20th century, in mayoral regalia]]

In England, the offices of mayor and lord mayor have long been ceremonial posts, with few or no duties attached to them. Since 2000, some mayors have been directly elected mayors and have more influential political roles whilst also retaining the ceremonial functions.

Directly elected mayors

There are two types of directly-elected mayors in England: local authority mayors, who serve as the council leader of a single local authority district, and strategic authority mayors, who have wider powers over a larger strategic authority area consisting of several districts.

Ceremonial mayors

Ceremonial mayors and provosts are traditionally elected by town, borough and city councils. The role of the chair of a district council is exactly the same as the mayor of a borough council; they have the same status as first citizen, after the Sovereign, in their district, but they are not addressed as mayor.

A ceremonial mayor's one-year term of office denotes the municipal year.

List

Election

In England, where a borough or a city is a local government district or a civil parish, the mayor is elected annually by the council from their number and chairs meetings with a casting vote. Where the mayoralty used to be associated with a local government district, but that district has been abolished, charter trustees can be established to provide continuity until a parish council may be set up. Where a parish council (whether the successor of a former borough or not) has resolved to style itself a town council, then its chair is entitled to the designation of town mayor, though in practice, the word "town" is often dropped.

Lord mayors

The right to appoint a lord mayor is a rare honour, even less frequently bestowed than city status.

Currently, 24 cities in England have lord mayors:

  • Birmingham
  • Bradford
  • Bristol
  • Canterbury
  • Chester
  • Coventry
  • Exeter
  • Kingston upon Hull
  • Leeds
  • Leicester
  • Liverpool
  • City of London
  • Manchester
  • Newcastle upon Tyne
  • Norwich
  • Nottingham
  • Oxford
  • Plymouth
  • Portsmouth
  • Sheffield
  • Southampton
  • Stoke-on-Trent
  • City of Westminster
  • York

Honorifics

The Lord Mayors of London and York are styled The Right Honourable. All other Lord Mayors, as well as the Mayors of cities and the original Cinque Ports (Sandwich, Hythe, Dover, Romney and Hastings), are styled The Right Worshipful. (Bristol styles its lord mayor "Right Honourable" instead, but this usage is without official sanction). All other Mayors are styled The Worshipful, though this is in practice rarely used for a Town Mayor. These honorific styles are used only before the Mayoral title and not before the name, and are not retained after the term of office.

A mayor can also be styled Mr Mayor and usually appoints a consort, typically a spouse, other family member or fellow councillor. In England (and the Commonwealth), the designated female consort of a mayor is usually styled Mayoress or occasionally Mrs Mayor and accompanies the mayor to civic functions. A female mayor is also called mayor, not, as sometimes erroneously called, "Lady Mayoress". A mayoress or Lady Mayoress is a female consort of a mayor or Lord Mayor; a male consort of a mayor or Lord Mayor is a Mayor's Consort or Lord Mayor's Consort.

See also

  • Local government in England
  • Municipal year
  • Lord Mayor of London
  • Combined Authority

References

  • BBC article
  • New Local Government Network
  • English city and regional mayors 2017