Mayor of Bedford

The first known reference to a Mayor of Bedford in England was in 1264. Prior to the Municipal Corporations Act, 1835, the Mayor of Bedford came into office on 29 September. The first Mayor of the reformed Corporation came into office on 1 January 1836, and subsequent Mayors on 9 November. After the Local Government Act, 1948, and the Local Government Act, 1972, the Mayors from 1949 onwards came into office in May. The civic mayor was replaced by a directly elected mayor in 2002. Since April 2009 the Borough of Bedford is a unitary authority, with the executive having the powers and functions of both a non-metropolitan district and a non-metropolitan county. ==Referendum==

Bedford held a referendum on 21 February 2002 on whether to introduce a directly elected mayor after a petition was signed by at least 5% of the electorate. The move was approved with 11,316 voting in favour and 5,357 against on a turnout of 15.5%. ==Elections==

The first mayoral election on 17 October 2002 saw independent Frank Branston elected as mayor. 2002 2007 In 2007 Frank Branston was re-elected as mayor. 2009 By-Election A by-election took place on 15 October 2009 after the death of the previous incumbent, Frank Branston in August 2009. The by-election was won by the Liberal Democrat, Dave Hodgson. The result was declared on the night of 5 May, with Wootton defeating Hodgson by 145 votes. Unlike previous elections, this election did not provide for transfer votes due to the passing of the Elections Act 2022, which mandated that mayoral elections in England should be conducted using first-past-the-post rather than the supplementary vote system. {{Election box begin == See also ==