Dear Editor,

In response to your article about the forthcoming referendum on the governance model in Newham (May 6^th: A day to shape Newham’s future, Newham Voices, issue 4), the People of Newham currently have a right to vote for the Leader of the Council. When people vote for the Mayor of London on 6 May; many will be surprised to learn that they are being asked to abolish their right to vote for their own Mayor in Newham.

Our vote is our voice and voting is the best way to make sure our voice is heard.

Locally we elect a Mayor to be the voice of all of us when the decisions are made that affect our lives. They are directly accountable to all the voters and we can vote for someone else if they let us down.

The Newham Right To Vote group are campaigning to keep people’s right to vote for the Mayor, which is how the Council is run now, thereby keeping power in the hands of voters.

While there are some aspects of the committee system that seem appealing, the handful of areas that have adopted the system also have different political parties in the Council who play a part in decision making to reflect political balance. I am struggling to see how the committee system in Newham will work when you have a single party running the Council.

In an ideal world all Councillors would come together collegiately to make decisions but in reality the committee system will give rise to infighting and will only cause more division while Councillors jockey for positions.

Potentially, as has happened in the past, Councillors could be busy constantly playing musical chairs rather than getting the job done. The claim that the committee system will make Councillors more accessible and accountable for the Council’s actions, is surprising as they already are under the current system.

In all local governance systems, there is a Leader, so why should the people of Newham not get to choose theirs directly as opposed to a small group of councillors?

*Charlene McLean is currently Statutory Deputy Mayor of Newham

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