THE outgoing regional director of public of health is one of around 20 leading figures in the city who last night came out in support of the campaign to bring an elected mayor to Liverpool.
Prof John Ashton threw his weight behind calls for a referendum to decide if the current council set-up should be overhauled.
He joined community leaders, writers, academics and business people, including artist Alex Corina and award-winning screenwriter Frank Cottrell Boyce, who have all signed an open letter to the Daily Post calling for a citywide debate on how Liverpool should be led.
Kind charity founder Stephen Yip, Rob McDonald, from the Liverpool John Moores School of Architecture and Tony Siebenthaler, founder of the Downtown Liverpool Organisation, have also added their names to the list.
Liam Fogarty, chairman of the campaign, said: "The quality of leadership in Liverpool has become the key issue in our city, an issue that needs to be tackled urgently.
"The years 2007 and 2008 will be crucial ones for Liverpool. But there is a widespread fear that mismanagement will lead to opportunities being squandered because of the way our city is run. "The people who have signed this letter have made a real contribution to Liverpool life as entrepreneurs, educators, community leaders, writers and artists.
"The fact that they are prepared to endorse our call for a mayoral referendum speaks volumes."
The campaign was launched in December last year and now has around half of the 17,000 signatures it needs to trigger a referendum.
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