Do the Valleys need a Mayor?

News here and here on the key recommendation from the IWA's recent "Futures for the Heads of the Valleys" study. While my reaction was not quite the same as Peter Black and Valleys Mam, I am far from convinced that this is in any way a "silver bullet" that will shatter the ingrained problems and challenges that people in the Valleys face on a daily basis.

Quite apart from the fact that elections for directly elected mayors often end up electing monkeys like this or - worse still - monkeys like this, the IWA seem to largely ignore the fact that there is already an exciting, viable and transformational plan for the Heads of the Valleys in place. Patrick Lewis and his team have done a superb job in the area for the past few years, with Assembly cash and assistance from colleagues in Local Government. Further progress can be made, and I am confident that it will.

In fact, my only real concerns centre on securing the boost in funding called for by the independent Bevan Foundation. I welcome my colleague Leighton Andrews' assertion that more money has been found for the programme in the last financial year, but as a fellow Valleys member I'm sure no-one would be more delighted than he, if the requested doubling of funding is granted. If this happens, and we receive the long awaited timetable for the completion of the Heads of the Valleys road (without which the rest of the investment borders on the meaningless), I think we'll be talking less about Mayors and more about new businesses, new jobs and a new confidence in the area.

Valleys Mam makes a very good point about about elected Mayors being a "process" answer to a question that needs "delivery". I am minded to agree that with Assembly Members, Members of Parliament and Local Authorities working effectively, there are already the structures in place to deliver results on the ground, something which has been happening over the past ten years.

What all this talk of Mayors might just do, however, is give us all a kick up the collective backside and make us redouble our efforts to secure the cash and ideas we need to deliver lasting change to the people of the Valleys.