MORE than 900 people have had their say on plans for a Boris Johnson-style elected mayor in Southampton.

Consultation on the proposals, which also include plans to cut the number of city councillors, ends in a week and residents are being urged to have their say.

Almost a decade after the Daily Echo first suggested that residents in Southampton could choose their own directly-elected mayor, the plans have resurfaced again.

An elected mayor would effectively take over the role of the council leader, and would be more accountable and visible as the city’s figurehead to residents.

The role would be similar to that of Boris Johnson in London, although with far fewer powers, and Joe Anderson in Liverpool.

The council’s current leader, Labour’s Simon Letts, pictuted, left, is in favour of the change although many other councillors are less sure.

Concerns have been raised that having a directly-elected mayor would put too much power in one person’s hands.

Consultation is also taking place on whether the number of |city councillors should |be reduced from 48 to 32, and whether the city council should hold elections |every four years, as |opposed to three of every four.

But with days to go until consultation closes, Cllr Letts is delighted with the huge |public response to the proposals.

He said: “We are really pleased we have such a lot of consultation responses.

“Last time we had 29 responses, so the fact we have had 900 this time is clearly significantly more and we are delighted.”

Consultation questionnaires are available online at Southampton.gov.uk/survey/elections or at the Civic Centre.

The closing date for consultation is November 6.