Robin Wales - Mayor of Newham

Mayor of Newham

In 2000 local authorities were granted the opportunity to directly elect an executive mayor with far-reaching decision-making powers. In this model of governance the mayor is directly elected by voters in the borough to serve for a period of four years. The elected mayor then chooses his or her cabinet; which must consist of no more than 10 councillors.

In 2002 Newham held a referendum and voted for the replacement of the traditional leader and cabinet model with the new directly-elected mayoral system. Sir Robin Wales became Newham’s first and the first Labour elected mayor in England. He polled 20,384 votes (50.77%).

He was re-elected in 2006, receiving 28,655 first preference votes (47.9%); with a further 2,983 2nd preferences he achieved 68.2% in the final tally. Robin Wales easily won a third term in May 2010, with 64,748 votes (68.02%).

Since 2005 one focus of Wales’ leadership has been to seize opportunities brought by the London 2012 Games to accelerate the social and economic regeneration of Newham.

Wales was part of the London 2012 Board which was involved in the 2012 Olympic and Paralympic Games bid for London. Social regeneration was at the heart of the London Bid and was instrumental in securing victory in 2005.

Wales has used his position on the Boards of both the London Organising Committee for the Olympic Games (LOCOG) and the Olympic Park Legacy Company (OPLC); which was renamed the London Legacy Development Corporation (LLDC) in April 2012, to ensure that a Games Legacy remains on the political agenda. He also chairs the Six Host Boroughs, an organisation which represents the interests of those boroughs most affected by the 2012 Games, and was instrumental in the establishment of the OPLC.

Wales also used his position on the LOCOG board to claim a thousand pounds a meeting as an allowance, despite already being paid a full time salary as Mayor of Newham. (see LOCOG accounts)