I can see advantages in the view expressed by Mr Adrian Fudge favouring an elected town mayor (Daily Echo, June 15), but I think he is really missing the point.

I served as a councillor for some years in London and at that time it was the councillors who were responsible for decisions, and the officers, with titles like Borough Engineer and Town Clerk carried out those decisions.

The first steps on the slippery slope came when changes were made in the titles of these officers.

The borough engineer became the Director of Technical Services and we replaced the Town Clerk with a Chief Executive Officer.

In effect, a council whose raison d’etre was the efficient provision of council services, became a business organisation and began to operate like a commercial company.

The directors considered themselves in that same light The whole atmosphere changed and it became easy to sideline the councillors.

These changes were compounded when the cabinet system was introduced.

Most councillors became backbenchers with no real input into policy.

They became fodder in the same way that MPs have become voting fodder in the Commons.

A small group of councillors serve in the cabinet and in effect take all the important decisions, heavily influenced – or even obstructed as described by Mr Fudge – by the directors.

This situation has steadily grown worse and now we read letters in the press from councillors complaining that they are not informed of developments taking place even in their own wards.

An elected mayor may, or may not, make things better, but it is within the gift of existing councillors, through their political groupings, to cut the officers down to size.

Tony Williams, Warnford Road Bournemouth