We could do with a few more Mayors like this

The Blair/Brown Terror's hope that, by having a load of directly elected Mayors, this would expand their disastrous hegemony still further seems to have gone rather wrong. Firstly, we have Boris making far less of a mess of London that Captain Newt, and now we have this guy, Peter Davies, Mayor of Doncaster and an English Democrat.

Here is a list of his priorities, taken straight from the local goverment site at Doncaster. There is hope yet!!

Progress / Key decisions since taking office

· Appointed a mixed Cabinet of committed Councillors

· Cut Mayor's salary from around £73,000 to £30,000 per year

· Axed Mayor's chauffeur driven car (approximately £6,000)

· Stopped future funding for gay pride event (£3,000)

· Stopped council newspaper Doncaster News

· Directed that two children's social worker posts be reinstated at Doncaster Royal Infirmary to specifically assist children in hospital and to help detect abuse

· Axed membership of Local Government Association and Local Government Information Unit (approximately £80,000)

· Where possible, stopped funding for translation services and instead encourage people to learn English

· Cut twinning ties with five towns saving approximately £4,000+

· Written to the Electoral Commission to cut the number of Councillors from 63 to 21 which could save upwards of £1,000,000

Future priorities

· Lower Council Tax by cutting extortionate levels of bureaucracy and other waste

· End malpractice and mismanagement in the council

· Hold a referendum on the Mayoral governance of Doncaster

· Reduce the number of councillors from 63 to 21

· Conduct a review of the A638 Quality Bus Corridor and the traffic mayhem around the Dome

· Scrap politically correct non-jobs and encourage the former employees to seek meaningful employment

· Encourage every school to opt out of local authority control – money should go directly to schools to raise deteriorating educational standards

· Ensure police concentrate resources on catching criminals

· Introduce zero tolerance of anti-social behaviour and impose penalties for such everyday practices as using foul language in public and spitting in the street

· Halt the architectural vandalism of Doncaster and protect the town’s heritage