Systems have pros and cons

The advantages of the leader and cabinet model of governance (‘Review of decision making at council’, Observer, January 28), introduced in the Local Government Act 2000, are speed and the efficient use of resources.

Its weakness is that decision making is reserved to a small number of councillors, creating a democratic deficit.

Alternative models have been explored. Guildford Borough Council, for example, since 2015 has used a hybrid model. One overview and scrutiny has been retained.the second has been replaced by an executive advisory board that meets three times a year and assists the executive with key decisions and policy making including the budget. It has more than 20 members and selects its own chairman.

Chichester’s working group might also want to look at two other authorities with a similar model to its own, Canterbury and Mole Valley.

What is interesting about Canterbury is that it once stood out as a model of scrutiny (we visited them in 2009 when I was chairman of O&S at Chichester.) but a few years ago reverted to the committee-led system.

What is interesting about Mole Valley is that it took advantage of the

2011 Localism Act to do the reverse, changing from committees to the cabinet system.

It would be interesting to ask them why they changed and what they have gained and perhaps lost in the process.

STEPHEN QUIGLEY

Mary Hite, of Hinde Road, Felpham, snapped this murmuration of starlings by the proposed Chichester and Arundel bypasses, the Stockbridge Link Road and a letter, dated February 2, 2021, giving notice of a proposed housing development on the precious fertile Daffodil Field south of Raughmere Drive, Lavant.

Our planet is being trashed. Please save green spaces for the sake of our mental health and future generations.

If we continue to go on like this there will be no significant countryside left, no fields, no breathable air, within walking distance. enough. Summer gridlock on the A285, and putting more traffic on the B2145 (already the busiest B road in the UK at 13,000 vehicles a day). Add to that the extra traffic from the Witterings and East Selsey developments.

Am I alone in thinking this plan is trying to kill the idea of a mitigated northern route, before it is even considered?