Mayor for Exeter

I am soon to start the process of raising a petition to have an elected Mayor of Exeter. If Exeter is, as I sincerely hope it will, to be a Unitary Authority then it is imperative that the true Democratic process is followed.It is unacceptable for the current crop of councillors to select the elected mayor from amongst themselves. We must have a referendum to first agree that there is an elected mayor and then what type of mayor that should be put in place.If the people decide that there should not be a referendum then so be it but at least we must try. We, the people of Exeter, can, if you approve let Exeter be free of the dead hand of the rural community and take contol over all the issues which effect us all. We can bring in car parking at County hall, impose congestion charging, we must have control over Exeter International Airport, Skypark and the new town at Cranbrook. We surely, can run our schools better than Devon County Council and we can surely look after our aged and infirmed better than Social Services. So, when asked please vote in favour of an elected Mayor for Exeter.