The 2:1 vote in the Referendum makes it clear that very few will be sad to see the end of the Elected Mayoral System which has done so much harm in our city in recent years.
All the idealistic hopes of new, decisive local government have evaporated and we have had government by patronage, stitched-up deals, votes influenced by Special Allowances, services like Education and Social Services farmed out to private companies; and of course the Elected Mayor and one other Councillor being arrested, and investigated, by the Police: in short, wretched local government.
It will be a major task for the City Council to get its act together with a Council Leader and Cabinet system that, I hope, doesn't involve a Coalition with the cosy deals (out of the public's sight) that that inevitably involves; much greater and more public sensitivity of Councillors' and Officers' decisions; better public debate; and more, much more, new thinking.
The agenda for the new Council is huge, and hugely important - the regeneration of Burslem, Longton and Stoke, which has hung fire for far too long; new support for, and energy behind, our schools, primary, secondary, and Special; much better support for people with disabilities and special needs - the decline of Remploy and the treatment of the Hamilton Workshops has been a disgrace. Decent services for those with learning disabilities aren't just a matter of civilized social policy: the lack of them contributes to social exclusion, poverty and isolation.
Despite revised sums of public capital investment (the UHNS, schools, Children's Centres, Regeneration) we are not seeing the transformation that our city needs and what little progress there is is so SLOW.
There is a wonderful opportunity for the new Council Leader to get a group on this and CHANGE things.
I regret that next year's City Council elections have been put back to 2011 (and argued against it with Ministers) but, to try be positive, it at least allows the new, post-Mayor leadership to show what it can do: this is an opportunity that must be grasped.