SKIPP wishes to add its collective voice to Graham Longley’s call (Oct 6) to return Southend Council to a committee system of governance.

The current cabinet system concentrates too much power in too few hands, with just nine councillors making all the decisions.

The remaining 42 councillors are reduced to the roll of merely rubber stamping the executive decisions of the cabinet.

Further to this, the real damage is to democracy itself and the faith of ordinary people in the political process.

In effect, the centralisation of power in the hands of nine individual councillors, disenfranchises huge numbers of residents whose elective representatives have no say in key decisions.

With the new Government’s announcement that councils can now return to the committee system, the opportunity now exists to dump the quasi-dictatorial cabinet system and return Southend back to the democratic fold.

Patsy Link, Sheena Walker, Mark Sharp
SKIPP Committee
Beechmont Gardens
Southend

...I am amused to read (Oct 6) Graham Longley is now calling for the cabinet system to be scrapped, which he was responsible for introducing into Southend together with his Labour partners when they controlled the council in 2000.

Has it taken 10 years for him to realise the political move that he masterminded as leader of the council has not been in the best interest of democracy?

We were one of the first in the country to have cabinet rule at a time when it was not being demanded, but recommended by the Labour government.

Is this a U-turn or hindsight?

David Garston
Maplin Way North
Southend