In my opinion, a political decision has been made to abolish the concept of directly elected mayors. If such positions had been created, the holders would have been capable of disputing managers' decisions. Directly elected mayors would have had the advantage of holding a mandate and being in office for a period of five years would have enabled them to engage in forward planning. A period of 12 months is extremely short in terms of being able to put in place initiatives, implement plans or work through a strategy. The loss of the office of directly elected mayors will again diminish the role of councils.