We need to ensure that we end up with a mayor who will fight for our city
VOTERS in Coventry today have the chance to elect the first West Midlands Metro Mayor.
Many of you didn’t want a mayor. Many of you didn’t want Coventry to be part of the West Midlands Combined Authority that the mayor will lead.
But the WMCA is happening and tomorrow we will know the identity of our mayor.
Regardless of your views on this latest rear- ranging of the political deck chairs, we need to ensure that we end up with a mayor who can and will fight Coventry’s corner within the socalled West Midlands Engine. We also need someone who can go to Whitehall and fight for the region’s interests, especially with so much attention focused on the Northern Powerhouse in the race for devolution.
And that is where you can make a difference with just a few minutes of your time today. Go out and vote. Birmingham accounts for almost 40 per cent of the population of the WMCA area so today’s election may well be won and lost up the A45.
But the turnout is expected to be low, so a significant number of votes in Coventry could give this city greater influence over the grateful winner.
And if this champion of our region is to be heard in the corridors of power in London, they will need the biggest mandate you can give them. Their power and influence will be inextricablyy linked the number off votes they can gather.
Whatever you political persuasion, just vote. THE West Midlands Mayoral race will go right down to the wire, according to the latest poll.
An online survey randomly delivered to almost 1,500 online readers of the Coventry Telegraph and its sister titles across the region discovered the race is still too close to call.
According to the survey Labour’s Sion Simon is slightly ahead of Conservative Andy Street.
Mr Simon currently boasts 36.5 per cent of the vote com- pared to 34.8 per cent for Mr Street. And Mr Simon is again slightly ahead after second preference votes of losing candidates are counted with 52.25 per cent compared to Mr Street’s 47.75 per cent.
The gap is not significant and means it is too close to call ahead of today’s vote.
The other main candidates are Beverley Nielsen, Lib Dem; Pete Durnell, UKIP; James Burn, Green Party; and Graham Stevenson, Communist Party. The West Midlands is among six areas which will elect their first metro mayors this week under the Government’s policy of shifting power and money over areas like transport, housing and job creation from London to the regions.
The survey shows that 70 per cent of our online audience were aware of the mayoral election, but about 40 per cent said they do not know enough to decide whether it is a good idea or not. And just over a third of people said they will not vote today. It is widely expected that 80 per cent of the electorate will not vote into today’s polls.
The biggest issue for most voters remains the NHS, followed by education, although immigration was highest among UKIP supporters.
Polls open for voters in Coventry, Birmingham, Dudley, Sandwell. Solihull, Walsall and Wolverhampton from 7am to 10pm today. The result is due on Friday afternoon.