BOLTON’s council leader is not in favour of having a Greater Manchester mayor and believes residents should be able to decide on the issue through a referendum.

Cllr Cliff Morris was among a panel of 10 local authority leaders who decided to appoint Police and Crime Commissioner Tony Lloyd as the interim mayor for the region on Friday.

But he believes the people of Bolton and the rest of Greater Manchester should be able to vote on whether they want a directly elected mayor to take charge in 2017.

Mr Lloyd has been moved into the role to oversee the beginning of the devolution of powers coming to Greater Manchester forming part of the Conservative government’s plan for a northern powerhouse.

The former Labour minister will not have the executive powers that will be granted to whoever is eventually elected into the permanent position in 2017 — with the winning candidate overseeing spending on things like health and transport provision.

But Cllr Morris said he was not in favour of having a Greater Manchester mayor.

He said: “This was not my preferred course of action but this is what we are going to be working with.

“I would have preferred to have a chairperson instead — why wouldn’t that work?

“But I also would have preferred us to have a referendum on whether we want an elected mayor for Greater Manchester at all.”

The council leader added that while he thinks the devolution of powers to leaders in the region can be a good thing for the area he is concerned about what level of funding will arrive from the government.

He added: “The main concern for me is about whether the funding arrives with these new powers. If it does then that will be good for Bolton.

“Greater Manchester has been working together already and that is why we are the first area where this will happen — I do believe we can make it work but we must have the funding.

“I don’t want this to simply be an instrument for delivering cuts — that is not what we are here for.”

Cllr Morris said he was fearful of any future cuts to council budgets that could arrive in chancellor George Osborne’s next budget on July 8.

He said: “Local government has been asked to find more and more savings and has certainly done its fair share — people need to realise that there is not much left to cut.”