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Democracy in Leeds

The Two Mayors of Leeds

Children have always been an important part of the population in Leeds. Did you know that here in Leeds there are over 185,000 young people who are aged up to 18. To help everyone learn there are now over 280 schools!

Find out more about our city and the work that people are doing to help children in this 4 four minute video.

Imagine a meeting with 99 people. It could get pretty noisy! Leeds, along with most other cities, has a Lord Mayor. Here in Leeds, the Lord Mayor is elected by the other councillors and holds their position for one year. One of the jobs of the Lord Mayor is to keep order in the council meetings. To do this they have a small wooden hammer called a gavel. If the meeting gets too noisy or if the councillors get to excited, the Lord Mayor will bang the wooden hammer and say “Order! Order!”

A carved wooden gavel with a metal shield attached to the end.
A wooden gavel

See Supporting Links to discover who the current Lord Mayor of Leeds is. But did you know that Leeds also has its very own Children’s Mayor?

 

The Leeds Children's Mayor logo of a cartoon owl wearing a  mayors robe, and a chain of office. 
The Leeds Children's Mayor logo of a cartoon owl wearing a chain of office

For the last 12 years, children and young people have been able to vote for their own Children’s Mayor. Any Year 5 pupil in Leeds can run for election to be the children’s mayor of Leeds, they just need to think of an idea for how they would improve Leeds for other children and young people.

And because you have to be 18 or over to vote for the city councillors, there is a rule that nobody who is older than 18 is allowed to vote for the Children’s Mayor! If you want to get involved in the Children’s Mayor programme or to find out other ways that children can have a voice in the city there is a great short film to tell you all about it! You can also contact leedschildrensmayor@leeds.gov.uk