SIR – Our party leaders (T&A, February 13) are against our having an elected mayor. Their arguments are questionable.
The leader of the Lib Dems says there would be conflict between an elected mayor and the Government policy that ties us to the coat-tails of Leeds. But there would only be a conflict if the mayor were standing up for Bradford! Which is surely what we would want.
The leaders of both the Labour and Conservative parties argue that because Bradford is a diverse community, no one person can represent the disparate whole. This is to argue in favour of scattered, weak leadership with no single policy or vision for the city and no one person carrying the can for anything. It is to argue for the status quo.
The current executive is neither transparent nor directly accountable. Councillor Love, for the Greens, fears a further concentration of powers with a mayor. However, a mayoralty would be transparent and directly accountable.
Although we don’t yet know what a mayor’s powers might be, we can assess the mayoralty in London as a model to judge whether we think it has done London more good than harm.
Nicholas Bielby, Frizinghall Road, Bradford
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