Fears an elected mayor will become a dictator evaporate when one examines the regulations which accompany the Local Government Act.

The Government has cautiously surrounded the mayoral structure with meticulously-crafted requirements and constraints to make sure the people are kept fully-informed of what is being planned. These make fears of a dictatorship groundless. As for fears of mayors feathering their own nests, these also disappear when one reads the details of the "openness" demanded within the new arrangements. Memories are short but we might remind ourselves that the committee system is no guarantee against corruption.

Remember the scandal of Westminster Council and Doncaster? Corruption in council affairs has prevailed in the past because the regulations referred to did not exist. Neither do they exist in France or the US.

We have to do something about the widespread apathy which is a greater threat to centralised control. The very high turnout in the Tory leader election is an indication of what is possible.

-R G Jenkins, Hove