Andy Burnham is inadvertently proving mayors are a sham: Yorkshire Post Letters

Gareth Robson, Kent House Road, Beckenham.

Stewart Arnold of Swanland asks a pertinent question (‘what's the point of metro mayors?’) in his letter which you published (July29) in The Yorkshire Post.

He makes the excellent point that the return to the £2 bus fare cap was announced centrally whilst buses are supposed to be the preserve of mayors (for areas in mayoral strategic authorities).

And they're not just for the metro areas - county combined authorities also have them now (such as ‘Greater’ Lincolnshire or York-and-North-Yorkshire ‘yonoyoca’). This ties in with the pithy remarks on the same day in the letter from Lester May of Camden Town - the bus cap announcement is a great example of the theatrical but futile hyperactivity of Andy Burnham's first week.

But may I offer an answer as to why we have mayors? England has been trying to rationalise its local government since 1965 with wave after wave of half-baked compromises.

Remember the counties which have come and gone? Avon? Tyne-and-Wear? Cumbria? West Midlands? Remember John Prescott's attempt to convince the Geordies that what they needed was more politicians (North-East Regional Assembly)?

A serial farce and a disgraceful example of maladministration. And now in desperation, trying to convince us that someone is listening to our local concerns (even though most of us care more about our national concerns), they offer us elected mayors running ‘combined authorities’ which very few people understand.

These CAs are just an overlay on top of the underlying local authorities, a sticking plaster aimed at putting back some coordination above the patchwork quilt of tiny boroughs generated by a previous round of failed reorganisation.

The mayors are ringmasters of the resulting sad circus. Next up, following Burnham's re-hash yesterday of the worn-out ‘make skills just as valuable as A levels’ mantra, the mayors will get to overhaul the school education system in their fiefs. Except they won't because the DfE is busy re-imposing a National Curriculum onto the academy chains so the mayors will be squeezed between central government and education not-for-profit companies.

My mind boggles at what the schools are going to be asked to do now in order to deliver on the latest centrally-imposed gimmick. Only England could produce this level of shambles.

Martin J Phillips, Tinshill Lane, Leeds.

Andy Burnham is looking into ways of financing Social Care one of his main priorities.

Meanwhile in West Yorkshire, tens of £millions is being wasted on turning bus stops and shelters from red to green! £46m+ has so far been spent on the latest facelift of Leeds Station - the 3rd or 4th change in the last decade or so - yet the most important requirement - a Tourist Information Centre - is not included.

£ millions more are being wasted on creating cycle lanes that nobody uses. £200m+ is likely to be wasted on a tramline between Leeds and Bradford that is unnecessary since there are already three railway routes between the cities.

This has gone beyond Tracy Brabin’s vanity exercise; it is crass stupidity!