wletters-vision-mayor-power-PPR-gary saxton

Publications by New Journal Enterprises

Home

Archive

Competition

West End Extra - LETTERS TO THE EDITOR
Published: 2 May 2008

Vision of mayor with real power and no party

• AT the end of April the Institute for Public Policy Research (IPPR), a leading think tank put forward a report.
A major proposal was that every local authority should have an elected mayor not an “appointed” one.
A mayor with real power just as it used to be, accountable, approachable and engageable above the leader and cabinet who are chosen by the ruling party.
I thought hard about Westminster and I had a vision. What if the mayor was not allowed to come from a registered political party?
An independent community focal point?
A referee? A local yokel…
Maybe more than one in four voters would come out and vote? Maybe council officers could be held accountable?
Maybe it could be City for All not City Hall.
Pipedream?
Remember dreams can come true if you really want them to. The world is full of three types of people: Those with big brains who talk about ideas, those with medium brains who talk about events and those with small brains who talk about other people.
These were wise words from Eleanor Roosevelt, the original First Lady.
Gary Saxton
Chepstow Road, W2

Send your letters to: The Letters Editor, West End Extra, 40 Camden Road, London, NW1 9DR or email to letters@westendextra.co.uk. The deadline for letters is midday Wednesday. The editor regrets that anonymous letters cannot be published, although names and addresses can be withheld.
Please include a full name, postal address and telephone number.
Letters may be edited for reasons of space.

Comment on this article.
(You must supply your full name and email address for your comment to be published)

Name:

Email:

Comment:

Your comments: