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Mayors in the United Kingdom
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
In the United Kingdom, the office of Mayor or Lord Mayor (Provost and Lord Provost in Scotland) had long been ceremonial posts, with little or no duties attached to it. The most famous example is that of the Lord Mayor of London.
Traditionally mayors and provosts have been elected by town, borough (burgh in Scotland) and city councils. Since 2000, several districts now have directly-elected mayors with extensive powers.
See borough status in the United Kingdom for a list of English districts to have a borough charter (and therefore a mayor).
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In England, where a borough or a city is a local government district, the mayor is elected annually by the council from their number and chairs meetings of the council. In cases where a town or a city is a civil parish, the mayor is elected from their number by the parish council. Where the mayoralty used to be associated with a local government district but that district has been abolished, Charter Trustees may be set up to provide continuity until a parish council may be set up.
In 2000 the Labour government led by Tony Blair passed a local government reform which changed this system somewhat. Several districts in England now have directly elected mayors with real powers and an advisory cabinet to assist them.
Also since 2000, the area of Greater London has had a Greater London Authority headed by a Mayor of London. This is a separate post to the historic and honorific Lord Mayor of London and may be characterised as a strategic, regional, role rather than as anything analogous to previous local government in England.
The right to appoint a Lord Mayor (or in Scotland, a Lord Provost) is a rare honour, even less frequently bestowed than city status; a Lord Provost also acts as Lord Lieutenant of their city.
Currently, 30 cities have Lord Mayors or Lord Provosts.
In England: Birmingham, Bradford, Bristol, Canterbury, Chester, Coventry, Exeter, Kingston-upon-Hull, Leeds, Leicester, Liverpool, the City of London, Manchester, Newcastle upon Tyne, Norwich, Nottingham, Oxford, Plymouth, Portsmouth, Sheffield, Stoke-on-Trent, the City of Westminster and York.
In Scotland: Aberdeen, Dundee, Edinburgh, Glasgow.
In Wales: Cardiff, and Swansea.
In Northern Ireland: Belfast.
The Lord Mayors of London, Cardiff, Belfast, York and Bristol and the Lord Provosts of Edinburgh and Glasgow are styled The Right Honourable. No other honorifics are applied to the Provosts and Lord Provosts in Scotland.
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. Also some historic boroughs, such as Shrewsbury and Atcham [1] in Shropshire, call their Mayors by this prefix.
All other Mayors are styled The Worshipful. These honorific styles are used only before the Mayoral title and not before the name, and are not retained after the term of office.
The wife of a male Mayor is called the Mayoress and accompanies him to civic functions. A female Mayor or an unmarried male one may appoint a female consort, usually a fellow councillor, as Mayoress. The consort of a Lord Mayor is the Lady Mayoress.