Mayoral system in city's best interests
The petition to remove the city mayor seems to be based on a misunderstanding of the events referred to.
For example, in the case of travellers' sites, the Government requires the city council to provide permanent sites.
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The mayor does not have any choice about whether, only where.
Moreover, we seem to have remarkably short memories – it is not long since everyone was complaining about illegal sites and saying the council must provide permanent sites.
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Mr McCaffrey seems to have cast around in the back of his mind for any controversial topic he can remember and then assumed the issue was the responsibility of the mayor.
When he says that "the mayor does not listen", what he means is that the mayor has not done exactly as he wants on one particular issue.
In fact, on almost all of the issues he mentions, the mayor has shown that he is prepared to listen.
Do we want a mayor who tries never to upset anyone and never to take an unpopular decision?
That way we may as well go back to the short-termism of the previous system (which I seem to remember was not popular).
City mayors, thank goodness, are able to take a longer-term view. The city needs to attract jobs and investment.
To do that, it has to be an attractive place to live and work and that means spending money. We cannot simply draw in our horns and stand still.
I believe the mayoral system is in the best interests of this city, by allowing decisions to be taken that are in its long-term interests.
We are fortunate to have an able and dedicated city mayor. I certainly will not be signing this petition and hope others will consider the wider picture and not simply short-term disgruntlement.
S Mason, Leicester.
Comments
by spalding1944
Thursday, November 15 2012, 4:05PM
“Pete's only good at spending money he hasn't got while making council worker redundant
Just a thought, perhaps we could have another assistant Lord Mayor to look after the redundant workers.”
by heisspartacus
Thursday, November 15 2012, 12:42PM
“@ joe-bloggs "The people of Leicester never votedfor this clown."
As you clearly have difficulty in understanding the voting procedure surrounding the Mayor, let me remind you. He WAS voted in by a majority more than all other votes combined.
It was the Office of Mayor itself that was not voted on, that is we were not given a referrendum. This we should have been the case and many would have voted against.”
by joe-bloggs
Thursday, November 15 2012, 12:20PM
“This load of tosh must have been written by one of petes Muppets.
The people of Leicester never votedfor this clown.
The people of Leicester have not been asked if we want petes park.Can someone ,ANYONE,say what benefit this clown has brought to Leicester.Maybe open a tab at Bet Fred to see winner .”
by Eastonian
Thursday, November 15 2012, 12:05PM
“Obviously S Mason is entitled to an opinion as we all are and will only highlight what is considered the positives, however, to give this story a more balanced approach some other facts should be mentioned.
1) The system of having an 'Elected Mayor' was decided on by 40 odd New Labour City Councillors at the time a decision denied to the 300K population of the City of Leicester.
2) Placing too much power with one person is bad for democracy as we have already seen with many politicians not least locally with Cllr. Parsons at County Hall.
3) As others have said there is already a Council of Members duly elected by the citizens in their appropriate Wards, therefore, these Councillors should have a say in all matters which affect the lives of the people they represent.
The challenge by Mr McCaffrey if successful will be a good thing for Leicester. If it transpires the people of Leicester have their say in whether they want this new system or not it will be a far more democratic approach than they have had so far.”
by Ledecestre
Thursday, November 15 2012, 8:57AM
“The point being surely the elcted council is there to do these things? It's served us as well as any system reform in 1836 so I don't see the need for yet another figurehead. What does he do that the council chamber can't do?”
by kjannoyed
Wednesday, November 14 2012, 4:53PM
“i wonder if the travellers site would have affected the writer of this article???
also the mayor doesn't listen..this has been proved as he only spoke to the travellers after he had chosen the sites and TOLD people how they were going to be!”
by powellp
Wednesday, November 14 2012, 3:55PM
“"Do we want a mayor who tries never to upset anyone and never to take an unpopular decision?"
We were never actually asked if we wanted a mayor at all!”