The Bristol Civic Leadership Project is a research collaboration between the University of the West of England and the University of Bristol. It commenced in 2012, prompted by the introduction of a mayoral system of governance in the city, and has received funding from the Economic and Social Research Council, and Bristol City Council. It has led to the production of policy-focused reports and academic outputs, and enabled the researchers involved to contribute to a variety of events in Bristol and beyond.
The committee system of governance
In May 2024 a committee system of governance was introduced into Bristol. The English Devolution and Community Empowerment Bill, published in July 2025, includes a clause – Clause 57 – that would abolish the committee system of local governance in England. The Bristol Civic Leadership Project opposes this measure as it represents an unwarranted intervention in the internal organisational arrangements of independently elected local authorities. We have submitted evidence to the parliamentary Public Bill Committee proposing the deletion of this clause from the Bill and setting out suggestions on how to strengthen local democracy in England:
Report on the governance options facing Bristol
Ahead of the Mayoral Referendum, held in Bristol on 5 May 2022, on whether to retain the mayoral system or switch to a committee system, the Bristol Civic Leadership Project published a report in March 2022 called called ‘The Bristol referendum 2022: Thinking through the options‘. It is available for download here: https://bristolcivicleadership.net/our-publications/
The May 2022 referendum
In the referendum Bristol citizens decided to abolish the mayoral model of governance and to replace it, with effect from May 2024, with a committee model of governance. A cross-party working group of councillors was set up to develop design principles for the new model:
Bristol Civic Leadership Project 