Has a Bristol mayor made a difference?

Mayoral governance in Bristol has boosted the visibility of city leadership and helped promote Bristol on the national and international stage, a new study has found. The research by UWE Bristol and the University of Bristol also showed the mayoral model of leadership had unnecessarily restricted the role of councillors and reduced citizens' belief in their ability to influence decisions. Bristol was one of the pioneering UK cities to introduce an elected mayor in 2012. Researchers at both universities have gathered data over an eight-year period to explore whether the model has been successful. Researchers compared people's views about the quality of city governance in Bristol as expressed in 2012, before Bristol had a directly elected mayor, with current views about the strengths and weaknesses of the mayoral model. Academics have highlighted five major findings from their ongoing research, the Bristol Civic Leadership Project , in an independent report Mayoral governance in Bristol: Has it made a difference'. The research shows that the introduction of mayoral governance in Bristol has given a significant boost to the visibility of city leadership.