Early blow for Cameron mayor hopes (From Bridport and Lyme Regis News)

Early blow for Cameron mayor hopes

2:07am Friday 4th May 2012 in National News © Press Association 2013

David Cameron has suffered a blow when Nottingham rejected the idea of an elected mayor.

Despite strong support from the Prime Minister, the city voted "no" by a margin of 57.5% to 42.5%, on a low turnout of just under 24%.

The prospects for the plans being passed in other cities were also looking poor, with Birmingham widely expected to come down against.

Birmingham Erdington MP Jack Dromey admitted the city's voters were likely to have rejected an elected mayor.

He said: "The straws in the wind are that it is likely to be a No vote, but we will see."

Nottingham City Council's Labour Leader, Jon Collins, said: "This was a referendum imposed on us by the coalition Government which the majority of local people clearly did not agree with. I am pleased with this outcome because an elected mayor would have been expensive and unnecessary.

"This outcome shows that local people recognise we have a system in Nottingham which is working well for them and the city.

"We in the city however are not complacent about the challenges faced in order to achieve our targets of cutting unemployment, continuing to cut crime and anti-social behaviour and keeping our streets and neighbourhoods clean.

"All city councillors will now continue the hard work of making Nottingham a better place to live and work."