Hear All Sides

I AM not normally motivated to write to a newspaper, but I am infuriated that Darlington Borough Council should be accused of trying to mislead the electorate with a leaflet delivered to every house at our expense (Echo, Aug 24).

In Hear All Sides on the same day, Alan Charlton says that a directly elected mayor has only been "of any real benefit to the people" in London, which has different circumstances to Darlington.

What about Hartlepool and Middlesbrough, which are far closer to Darlington and, from what I read in the Echo and hear on the street, both Stuart Drummond and Ray Mallon are doing a good job and very popular? Why can't we have that in Darlington?

You only have to look at what they have done with the roads in our village of Middleton St George and some of the other decisions that have been taken that show this council is not really in touch with us. - Johan Moncur, Middleton St George.

THE information given out prior to the referendum on whether we are to have an elected Mayor is sketchy and badly thought out.

It seems that a small group of individuals have - and who knows whether there is any particular self interest within that group - got together and gathered 4,000 signatures. How was this done? Did they, as so often is the case, stand in the Market Square asking people for signatures, or was a public meeting held?

We, the citizens of Darlington, are being asked to make a decision that will have far reaching consequences without any public debate on this matter. Is this democracy at work?

There has got to be a cost to this position - a pay packet that may reach £100,000. I can imagine there will be no shortage of applicants, and as no qualifications are necessary, anyone may apply.

There has got to be a cost to the council tax payer, and it may not only be financial. The referendum is on September 27. Make use of your democratic right and whatever your persuasion do not be apathetic. Once a decision is made on this matter it cannot be changed. - MM Nevison, Darlington.

CONGRATULATIONS to Harvey Smith for catching Darlington council red-handed in its attempt to mislead the public about directly-elected mayors (Echo, Aug 24). A nice example of it being able to fool some of the people all of the time and all of the people some of the time, but not all of the people all of the time.

The council's leaflet must have influenced Alan Charlton (HAS, Aug 24) into believing that it would be wrong to be able to vote for the leader of his council - ie: the elected mayor - every four years, but he presumably thinks it right to be able to vote for his Member of Parliament.

The majority of voters in Hartlepool and Middlesbrough have recently returned their elected mayors with increased majorities and they are not so different from Darlington voters as Londoners. Like Joseph Pease, one person can make a difference. - HRC Owen, Middleton St George.

LIKE Harvey Smith, I was disgusted at the bias of Darlington council's You Decide leaflet. The present council regime is clearly afraid of a directly-elected mayor.

The cost of this publication was £6,157.57 - a detail I received under a Freedom of Information request. In a recent reply to my wife on this issue, a council officer said that the survey that decided upon the type of mayor was carried out in 2001. Yet, the You Decide leaflet says this survey was conducted in 2002. The officer said that the reason the referendum will ask people to vote on an elected mayor with a cabinet, as opposed to any other type of mayor, was that in the 2001 survey, a tiny 909 respondents - 76 per cent of the 1,080 residents who replied, preferred this option.

Which begs the question why was the whole town not polled? And why rely on a six-year-old out-of-date poll? - Ian White, Hurworth