WITH reference to Ruth Scole’s letter about Penhill Primary (SA, August 6), I would like to add the following.

Although I am not a resident of Penhill, I think I detect the same democratic unease coming from Penhill which is already echoing around other Swindon electoral wards. Ruth questions whether a democratic process is going on in the case of Penhill Primary School, to which I say that the way our council leaders are appointed is a major reason why so many Swindon residents feel left out of, and cut off from, the local democratic process and the way it affects their day to day lives. In this case the future of a much loved school and its staff and an apparent powerlessness to fight back democratically at a system weighted so heavily against them in their own ward.

Leader of the council Rod Bluh made some statements about Penhill Primary which Ruth, and much of Penhill disagree with, but can’t hold him accountable for, even if he is wrong, because the current method of selecting council leaders leaves them unaccountable to the vast majority of Swindon’s 140,000 plus voters.

Only the voters in Dorcan ward can truly hold Rod Bluh accountable by voting for or against him in the 2010 local elections, but even they are only electing or rejecting him as a councillor, not to lead the council and borough. The decision to appoint Rod (or his replacement) as leader of the council will be taken by Conservative councillors, and it will happen behind closed doors. Unless you are a councillor and a member of that group, or a councillor of another group and the council is ‘hung’, you will be utterly unable to influence this decision one way or the other.

Penhill is one of five Swindon wards in which voters are realising that there is little incentive for the biggest gang in the council chamber to pay much attention to them, and that they cannot hold the leader, or his cabinet, accountable for their actions or policies in any effective democratic way apart from writing letters to local papers. The same goes for Central, Eastcott, Pinehurst and Gorse Hill and Western wards.

This is just one of several reasons why I became involved in petitioning Swindon Borough Council to hold a local referendum which, if enough voters sign the petition, will allow all of Swindon’s electors to decide for themselves how they want the council to be led. Swindon should have had the opportunity to vote on this in 2001, but it was deliberately denied to them by the leaders of the three political parties then in Euclid Street, and since that date the town has been led by a succession of party politicians who seem dismissive of anyone whose vote can’t touch them or affect their policies.

I believe whoever leads the council and is the public face of the borough of Swindon should be properly accountable to the borough’s voters, not just the small number of politicians who appointed them in private. It is the legal and democratic right of every voter in Swindon to make their own choice between continuing with a politically appointed leader or choosing to directly elect a leader themselves, ie an elected mayor who would have almost identical powers to the existing leader, but who would be elected by, and accountable to, the electorate.

I hope many readers will join me in signing the local referendum petition, because in doing so they will help bring about a borough-wide discussion on how the borough should choose its future leaders. If about 7,500 people sign the petition it will force our council to hold a referendum which will enable every one of Swindon’s 140,000 plus voters to express a choice and settle this issue democratically and decisively. Naturally I hope to encourage many more than the minimum number to reclaim their right to be heard and sign it.

The online petition is available at www.talkswindon.org/petition, paper petitions will be available for hand signatures very soon on the talkswindon forum.

GEOFF REID The ‘Elected Mayor for Swindon – You Decide’ campaign Winchcombe Close The Prinnels Swindon