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Mayor decision could rest with readers

The Blackpool Citizen has launched an initiative calling for on public to give their views on whether Blackpool should have a mayor.

The newspaper wants to pass the opinion of its readership onto the local council to help it decide whether or not to create such a post.

The council is consulting the public on three options: an elected mayor with a cabinet, a leader with a cabinet or an elected mayor with a council manager.

The public would elect the mayor from several candidates similar to the London election of Ken Livingstone.

Several names have already been put forward as candidates.

But Gordon Marsden, MP for Blackpool South, has spoken out against the need for a mayor in the town: “I am sceptical that a mayor would really cure all of Blackpool’s ills.

“What’s most important is that any system of local government doesn’t have the capacity for favouritism and cronyism,” he said.

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