MORE than 90,000 people are being asked to decide if they want to elect their own mayor.

Sedgefield Borough Council is among dozens of local authorities around the country looking at how it can reach its decisions faster and with fewer meetings.

It is launching a consultation exercise by putting out leaflets telling voters about three options for the way it might operate in the future.

Two of these would include a directly-elected mayor working either alongside a council manager or a cabinet of up to nine senior councillors.

The third option would be to bring in a cabinet system with a leader elected every year by councillors themselves.

The council scrapped its old committee structure last year and is operating under a cabinet for an experimental period.

Council leader Brian Stephens said: "We are committed to improving and modernising the way in which we work.

"I can't over-emphasise the importance of this consultation exercise."

Leaflets will be placed in council offices, leisure centres, post offices, doctors' surgeries and libraries. Voting on the options will take place from the middle of next month.

Cards are being sent out to all the borough's 39,000 households