I am getting tired of the rantings of the No campaigners.

This "death of democracy" charge is nonsense, as are the claims about the cost of running a directly-elected mayoral office. Have the committee junkies counted up the cost of their spiralling set of talking-shops with all the bureaucracy needed to support them? Of course not.

This is all a smokescreen. Under the mayor and cabinet system, all big decisions of Brighton and Hove City Council will still have to be agreed by councillors from all political parties at the regular meetings of the full council.

The cabinet will meet in public, the Press will have access to all paperwork and decisions.

What local people will gain from an elected mayor is the opportunity to take part in deciding who will be the city leader - and the name and phone number of who to complain to when the rubbish isn't being collected or the street lights aren't working.

The No campaign is based around councillors who know how to play the committee system and they want back into their safe world where they can while away the hours in the Town Hall talking to each other, instead of getting out there in the real world with real people.

-Mark Crane, Wilbury Crescent, Hove