V Paynter explains it all (Letters, Ocober 8). I have followed the debate about an elected mayor avidly but none of the literature ever explained to me that, under the new committee system locally-formed business, housing, sports and other groups will be able to actually sit on the committees.

Why on earth didn't the No campaign make this clear from the start?

The idea of ordinary people sitting on the committees that will decide the fate of ordinary people is a great boon to the No campaign cause.

Of course, the No campaign did not include such a suggestion in its literature because it isn't the case (although that hasn't stopped it from including a great many other things that are not the case).

The committees will be for councillors - the same councillors that currently run Brighton and Hove City Council to the obvious dissatisfaction of the ordinary people of Brighton and Hove.

So a vote for the committee system is actually a vote for the status quo.

If voters like what they have, they should vote No - but not under the misapprehension that anything will change or get better if you do.

-Harold Dodd, Balfour Road, Brighton