On the day of the elections to the National Assembly for Wales a number of local authorities in England were casting their vote for a mayor to run their councils.
Unfortunately in Wales, voters were not given the same opportunity as no Welsh council has adopted this new model of local governance.
Could that be about to change?
Back in February, a campaign was launched in Cardiff to give the people of the capital city a voice, via a referendum, as to whether they would want a mayor rather than retaining the current local authority arrangements.
It is not an easy task as, under the rules for such a petition in Wales, a minimum of 10% of the population has to sign up for change (as compared to 5% for England) and that has to be done within six months. In other words, 25,000 signatures have to be gathered by November in order to trigger a referendum.
The only alternative is that the full council could vote for a referendum for a mayor for Cardiff without having to have the formal petition handed to them, although there is uncertainty at the moment whether support for this change has a majority among the members.
Some would suggest that electing a mayor will add to the complexity of politics within what some are already calling an over-governed Wales.
Yet there seems to be little momentum for change, and only this week the Welsh Government indicated that they would not be moving forward immediately with the proposed reorganisation of local government, which means that it is likely that there will be no change before the next Assembly elections in 2021.
Whilst some will be disappointed at this inertia, it could present an opportunity for the people of Wales to consider whether a mayoral system could be an alternative to our current system of local government.
So what could a directly elected mayor do for the economy of Cardiff or that of any other local authority area in Wales?
The Institute for Government examined this question in detail in 2011, at a time when the UK Coalition Government was giving other cities outside of London the chance to vote on having directly elected mayors. The research undertaken involved interviewing a number of existing mayors about their powers and how they were able to support their local economies.
Perhaps the most important elements of this were in terms of their direct electoral mandate (they had been elected by the whole city and not just by one council ward) and their visibility.
This allowed them to position themselves as leaders of their locality, convene and co-ordinate local networks and ask local actors, especially those in the business community, to act in the interest of the authority.
What was interesting about such responses was that these factors were all outside of the formal powers of the mayor and was more about the influence of the office and the individual rather than any direct control.
In fact, most of the mayors saw themselves not as politically managing the council but as an outward-looking leader engaging with stakeholders both within and outside of the local authority area.
According to the Institute for Government, a newly elected mayor could focus on taking long-term strategic decisions that, whilst often being difficult, would support economic growth through negotiating directly for the resources, investment and powers their area needs to develop economically and strengthening links with business.
They could encourage collaborative working both within as well as across the wider local economy. This influence could be used to convene partnerships of key stakeholders who influence growth in their city and to bring coherence to a wider network of economic actors.
But more importantly, an elected mayor could give a focus and a central place where citizens can see who actually makes decisions for their local area and why. Such an individual would have the mandate and associated power to implement a vision and policy direction for the local economy to help it to compete on the global stage and ensure that it becomes a better place in which to live, work and to visit.
Yet at this moment, this vision of a new governance for local authorities in Wales is not even on the drawing board, with the only exception to this being the opportunity which is being given to the people of Cardiff to sign a petition which would give them, as citizens, the right to choose whether they want a directly elected Mayor or not.
Given the potential economic benefits that a mayor could bring to Cardiff, then the people should be at least be given the choice to consider whether such an appointment could revitalise this nation’s capital city.
Indeed, as the Institute of Government’s report noted: “Time and again, history shows that it is cities with strong and effective civic leadership that are well placed to make the most of local economic assets and compete better in a global economy.”
More relevantly, such a momentous decision by the people of Cardiff could, at a time of inertia in local politics, be the catalyst for a new and more direct democracy across the whole of Wales.