17.2.13

L'alcalde de Bristol cobrarà en moneda local

Mayor to take salary in Bristol pounds

George Ferguson scraps parking measure and seeks ideas to tackle £32m hole in budget, on first day in job
George Ferguson, Bristol mayor
George Ferguson on election night. Photograph: Rod Minchin/PA









On his first day in office the new independent mayor of Bristol rebranded the Council House, scrapped a parking measure brought in only a few weeks ago and announced he would take his salary in the city's local currency.

George Ferguson, who beat 14 candidates to become mayor, also revealed on Monday that the hole in the city council's budget was £32m – £4m greater than he had expected. Ferguson said he would work with anybody who could come up with a clever way of finding the savings needed without harming services.

Ferguson's first decision of his three-and-a-half year tenure was to scrap the name Council House and replace it with City Hall. At his swearing-in ceremony at Temple Meads station, he said the new name showed that the building and the work that went on inside it belonged to the people of Bristol, not to the mayor or the councillors. [llegir més]