Mayoral referendum passes 5th anniversary without ceremony
Wednesday Ocotber 18 went without incident: Enter `October 18’ in the search engine on Lewisham Council’s top-ranking website and you see images of decay from the intriguingly named `Love Lewisham’. But amid all the graffiti and fly tipping on show, there are no pictures of Lewisham Council’s Civic Centre, the site where the greatest blight on the borough – executive Mayoralty - is visible regularly.

October 18 2001 was the date of the controversial postal referendum that supported an elected Mayor for Lewisham. The Electoral Commission was not impressed. October 18 2006 was the date that central Government supported entities like Lewisham Council drawing up proposals to change this via a new referendum (many thanks to Nicholas Ingham for this paragraph’s sources).

It seems to me that if The Better Connected survey said that the Council’s website scores highly on `participation and people having the opportunity to influence council policies and decisions’, then Lewisham ought to extend this further on something as important as the leadership of the Council itself. If the Council can mount the Love Lewisham website, then it can spread the love some more and invite us to comment on holding a new referendum…