No one person can fix all of our city’s problems

COUNCILLOR LAUREN MCLAY, LEADER OF THE GREEN GROUP ON PLYMOUTH CITY COUNCIL, HAS HER SAY ON THE FORTHCOMING MAYORAL ELECTION.

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WHICHEVER way Thursday's mayoral referendum goes, Plymouth is being asked to believe that one person can save our city.

One person can’t fix the fact that one in four children here grows up in poverty.

One person can't fix our homes — which are the dampest and mouldiest in the UK.

One person can't fix our crises in social care, SEND education, or our homelessness epidemic — nor can they independently forge local solutions to the climate and nature crisis.

Our problems are many, and we are undoubtedly being failed. But this failure cannot, and will not, be fixed by one person. Whether Plymouth chooses to remain with the strong leader model, or move to a city mayor, both result in power being in the hands of an elite few, as it always has been.

The real question should be: how do we build a better, fairer, more democratic, more accountable system for Plymouth?