'I have 'advised' him not to ignore all established tradition'

In my correspondence to the Star I have criticised and/or questioned his interpretation and performance of the role of Lord Mayor and also praised him for his new consort offer, empathy with the community and his breath of fresh air approach. I have “advised” him not to ignore all established tradition and courtesies that go with his position as First Citizen of Sheffield, and wished him well for his term of office.

In addition to his “overstepping” the mark, I have raised the same issues that Mr Gill has raised in his letter and more beside, bringing Sheffield into disrepute, banning Donald Trump, encouraging the community to support a Mexico Solidarity Day, that he represents Sheffield and should speak for the city, inappropriate public dress and conduct when chairing council meetings.

My comments have been made with regard to his Mayoral position and not as a private individual. Along with other readers I met Magid and Nancy Fielder at the Star offices to have a chat about his new role. I found him to be a very likeable man, judged as a person and not a Lord Mayor. I have certainly not been conned by him in relation to his public role.

Mr Gill said “there’s protocol involved with any role of this nature and the fact that the Sheffield City Council have let this happen is indicative of where these people’s heads are at”.

I raised similar protocol/performance concerns with the SCC leader and asked who the Mayor was responsible to and if there was a code of conduct for his role. I received a very helpful reply from the SCC chief executive officer, in which he informed me that several people had raised similar concerns with him, one being that on occasions “a line had been crossed”.

He also informed me that the Lord Mayor had been made aware of these public concerns and clarified that he is “bound by the same code of conduct applicable to all of our councillors”.

This being the case, should Magid continue to behave in a manner that could be construed as a breach of the code of conduct, his fellow councillors have the powers to deal with the matter. Let us hope that this will not be necessary and that Magid will heed the council’s “quiet word in his ear”.

Cyril Olsen

Busk Meadow, Sheffield, S5