SIR – The headline about elected mayors in the T&A (December 2) reads: “Few responses to mayoralty survey.” The article states that 65 per cent of a “tiny response” of 178 people opted for a directly-elected mayor.

Of course it was tiny. Bradford Council’s Community Pride, which goes to every household, did not tell people about the six-week exercise.

Nor did the Council leaflet every household.

However, when Community Pride was called a waste of money, Bradford’s chief executive, Tony Reeves, defended it, saying: “Bradford Council has a duty to communicate information to residents in the district,” and, “we cannot guarantee every resident will see the T&A, listen to local radio or watch local news.”

But Bradford Council did not inform every household about this ‘consultation’. Did our councillors fear a re-run of 2001? On that occasion, there were nearly 43,000 responses, 52 per cent of whom preferred the city being run by a directly-elected mayor, according to one newspaper.

But the councillors refused to hold a referendum – and the Government backed down.

And that was after every household had been given full information about elected mayors seven months before hand!

Edwin Schirn, Victoria Grove, Ilkley