Stoke City Council Should Be Abolished Says Jack Straw

The directly elected Stoke City Council should be abolished after failing to achieve its purpose of bridging the divide between Stokies and the Council of Elders, the former foreign secretary Jack Straw has said.

Straw said: "I am now clear that there is a major democratic deficit within Stoke. And it is absolutely certain, in my judgment, that the mechanism that was established in 1974 to fill this gap of the democratic deficit, which was a directly elected City Council, has not worked and, in my judgment, cannot work in that form."

"Who da man? I da man."

Straw continued: "The paradox is that as the City Council has been given more powers it has become less, not more, legitimate and that is shown by the drop in the average [election] turnout across Stoke."

He said the elected City Council should be replaced by re-instating full powers to the Council of Elders.

Straw's argument was buttressed by a poll conducted YouGov, showing that significant numbers of Stokies believe the city would be better run by the Council of Elders without the City Council's involvement.