Correct Use Of Public Money - Mayor Making In Skegness?

Some of you may be aware that each year when the Mayorship of Skegness passes from the present incumbent to the new one there is a Mayor Making event, which is normally a dinner at one of the local hotels with entertainment. You may know that the incoming Mayor invites family, friends and colleagues to the event. What you may not know is that the council tax payers of Skegness largely fund it. Is this a correct use of public money?

The sum of £2,000 of public money is now put aside to pay for the event. This is a reduction on previous years but it is still £2,000 of your money!

I know of no other community within the county that has a tax payer funded event of this sort to celebrate the change of appointment.

During my time as a councillor, during which I attended one of these "doos" on the day I first became a councillor and before I understood that the event was funded by the tax-payer, I questioned this practice and made it quite clear that I thought that it was time it ceased as, given the parlous state of the public finances, there seems no supportable reason for the event to happen.

Various arguments were put forward regarding the fact that this is a tradition and that the dinner allows the incoming Mayor to raise money for his or her Mayoral charities but I am afraid I don't find those arguments strong enough to make me believe that spending money on the event is the correct thing to do. Tradition has its place but should not over-ride the financial imperatives of the present situation and there are plenty of opportunities for Mayors to raise funds for their chosen charity. If an incoming Mayor wishes to celebrate his or her elevation to the office then the funding of the celebration should be their own responsibility.

I am aware that the photograph of the mayoral chain shown within this article is not of the Skegness chain of office but I could not find a photograph of it without it being worn by one of the recipients. I did not use any of those photos as I didn't want to give the impression that I was "having a go" at any person, present, recent or in the past who has had the honour of being elected to the office of Mayor but at the practice itself.

In my opinion it really is time for this practice to stop and for the public funds used to pay for this event, or part pay for it in some cases, to be used for the benefit of the residents of Skegness!