No big beasts on ballot paper

From: Henry Grogan, Garforth.

THE whole of West Yorkshire is soon to elect an executive mayor, with wide-ranging powers to influence the governance and future development of our region.

Other regional mayors have been big beasts of the political or business worlds: London with Ken Livingstone, Boris Johnson and Sadiq Khan; West Midlands with Andy Street, former chief executive of John Lewis; Manchester with Andy Burnham, a former senior Cabinet Minister.

And here in West Yorkshire? Well (with apologies to the Lib Dems and other minor parties), we are being given a choice between a relatively new MP and her opponent, whose relevant experience appears to be 11 years as an opposition councillor.

Are the two major parties taking this election seriously?

From: Christopher Clapham, Shipley.

I HAVE read many articles on reforming local government in North Yorkshire and it comes as no surprise that they always want a bigger council (William Hague, The Yorkshire Post, March 3).

Big is best, as we said in the 1970s, and we have moved on to learn nothing whatsoever. The fact is that government never puts into place a mechanism to check if the reforms are working.

The reasons for local government in the first place have been lost in the history of time.

From: Jarvis Browning, Fadmoor, York.

I VERY much hope that common sense will prevail and North Yorkshire County Council will be kept as a whole unit. I cant see it working as well if it gets divided up.