LONDON'S got Ken, Middlesbrough's got Ray 'Robocop' Mallon and Hartlepool has a man formerly known as H'Angus the monkey.

Elected mayors, once a novelty, are now running councils and taking control of multi-million pound budgets all over the country.

And now there's a very real chance that Bournemouth could be the next town to be led by a democratically-elected mayor - if local businessman David Ramsden gets his way.

Click here to vote on this matter in this week's poll.

The political and parliamentary adviser, who lives in Queens Park Avenue, claims an elected mayor would take direct control over Bournemouth, promote the town in new ways, cut through party politics and be directly accountable to the electorate in a way that council-appointed leaders aren't.

Unlike the town's current mayor, which is purely a ceremonial role, a US-style democratically-elected mayor would have a mandate to implement his or her vision for Bournemouth.

Mr Ramsden said: "As far as I'm concerned, I have seen too many comments in the Echo recently where people are asking: 'Who is running Bournemouth?'

"There have been some quite strange decisions made and that just re-emphasises my belief that the sooner Bournemouth has a democratically elected mayor the better.

"Taking party politics out of local government can only be a good thing.

"Currently, a council changes political colour and the new administration seems to spend time undoing things the previous administration has done.

"In my view, that is just not in the best interests of Bournemouth."

Now David's challenge is finding 6,477 people who agree with him. If he can convince five per cent of the town's total electors to sign his petition for a democratically-elected mayor, the council will be legally required to hold a referendum on the issue.

And if it should get to this stage, a simple 51 per cent majority will be enough to radically change the way Bournemouth is run.

First published: November 8, 2005