Elected mayors are not the way to solve many problems

michael Heseltine’s Saturday essay (Yorkshire Post, April 7) provided a fascinating case for supporting the proposal to create city mayors.

He drew attention to the widening of the North-South divide implying that this was a consequence of the absence of such a system, although he does admit that differential investment and asset stripping of local government had been systematic by all governments’ post-war.

It is not unreasonable to remind Michael that none did more than he during the long Thatcher years when he served for much of the time as Secretary of State for the Environment.

That Government imposed the poll tax, abolished the GLC and Met Counties. It is true that the Blair/Brown governments did little to arrest the process sharing the same contempt that Ministers of all persuasions have had for any body that might share with Parliament, a democratic mandate.

The essay highlights the impact that Alex Salmond and Boris Johnson have had, enabling them to stand up for country and city respectively but neglects to point out that such influence has been brought to bear by virtue of devolved powers which could equally be exercised by a regional authority for Yorkshire.

Moreover, the powers he wishes to assign to mayors is currently on offer to the Leeds City Region which encompasses Leeds, Bradford and Wakefield and extends to the whole of West Yorkshire, North Yorkshire, York and Barnsley.

The White Paper, Growth for the Cities, largely Michael’s brainchild, proposes major devolution of powers to all city regions subject to adequate arrangements for governance.

Lord Heseltine and the present Government deserve great credit for their willingness to transfer back so much of the power that predecessor Governments have accrued at the expense of local government. But he must know well that such strategic powers would be too narrowly focused in three metropolitan cities and would be better exercised by a strategic authority that comprehends the economic inter-relationship between our towns and cities.

Big personalities enhanced by powers that may be bestowed on them would indeed give us more distinctive voices such as Boris, Ken or no doubt George Galloway.

But the current unseemly display in the London Election and George’s recent pranks will have some bearing on the decision that electors in the three cities will make in May.

Finally, Michael implies that efficiency and modernity are conditioned by the exercise of power by an individual, citing American governors and mayors as examples perhaps unaware of their reputations for corruption and eccentricity.

In contrast he could have drawn attention to the multi-tiered system of federal and local government in West Germany which most analysts regard as a model of efficiency and which we the British and our American allies imposed on them in 1945.

From: Coun Elizabeth Nash (Lab), City & Hunslet Ward, Leeds City Council.

MICHAEL Heseltine is right (Yorkshire Post, April 7) when he says that there is a North South divide.

He is right in that successive governments have removed functions and services from local government and laid down spending rules either by legislation or ring fencing grants.

And I would add, done not by the anonymous “Whitehall”, but by government ministers who knew nothing about how local government works.

However, he is wrong in stating that water was nationalised by the post-war Government. It was Edward Heath’s Conservative Government which took water away from local authorities. It was Margaret Thatcher`s Conservative Government which privatised it with disastrous consequences of high water bills, high salaries and a third of the water in Yorkshire leaking away because of non maintenance during the 90s drought.

Last year, this Government cut nearly £100m from Leeds’ budget. This year Leeds has cuts of £50m. On the other hand, councils in the south of England have had generous Government grants none of which had elected mayors. Is Michael Heseltine saying that if Leeds had an elected mayor then these cuts would not have taken place? Is a mayor going to have this money refunded?

And where is this supposed Superman or Wonder Woman mayor to be found?

Quite frankly, this Government’s attempt to foist elected mayors on the great Northern cities is an insult to the generations of council leaders, many of whom were knighted for their work.

Unlike council leaders, an elected mayor will not be accessible by councillors or the public, will not be accountable with a range of his or her own appointees, and will only be replaceable after damage has been done.

Far from being a strong individual standing up to Government and attracting more money and investment, he or she will be nothing more than a Government puppet.

From: JW Buckley, Aketon, Pontefract.

interesting essay by Lord Heseltine (Yorkshire Post, April 7) encouraging us to vote for City Mayors.

His argument is that central Government has taken away much of the power of local Government.

The answer Lord Heseltine gives is that we put up our own local hit man (ie a mayor). He will fight for local interests, and be recognised as a local champion.

But we already have such people in abundance. They are called MPs!