Call to base regional mayor in Plymouth

THE man behind the failed Mayor for Plymouth campaign is turning his attention to garnering support for a regional mayor of a proposed new super power authority, to be based in the city.

- ALISON STEPHENSON

Businessman Angus Forbes, whose hopes for a city mayor elected by the people and not councillors was not backed in a referendum, says Plymouth should be the location for the office of the South West Peninsula Mayoral Strategic Authority when powers are devolved from Whitehall.

Council leaders across the county have this week jointly written to government ministers in support of a South West authority, involving the whole of Devon and possibly Cornwall.

Strategic authorities, led by a regional mayor, will be responsible for a large population of more than one million and hold the purse strings and power on transport, skills, housing, and local infrastructure investment, formerly the remit of the central government.