A new campaign for a democratically elected mayor of Croydon (DEMOC) launched in Purley last night.

Around 200 people gathered in Chirst Church Primary School to hear more about the proposal.

At the moment the leader of Croydon Council is Tony Newman, he was chosen by fellow councillors.

Campaign group DEMOC wants to see this replaced by a directly elected mayor who would be chosen by Croydon’s voters.

In London, Hackney, Tower Hamlets and Watford all have a democratically elected mayors.

Chair of DEMOC Gerry Meredith-Smith said: “It is time for change in Croydon the current system does not work at all.

“Councillors can currently choose who controls our town. A democratically elected mayor would be chosen by the voters of Croydon.

“An elected mayor will need to listen to the residents. They won’t get elected unless they have the confidence of the voting majority of people in Croydon.

“If not they can be fired by the people after four years.”

The campaign hopes to get 15,000 signatures – five per cent of the electorate – to trigger a referendum on whether to adopt the new system.

And if it goes through they hope that within 18 months there could be a vote for the borough’s first directly elected mayor, following votes that would take place alongside local elections.

Conservative MP for Croydon South, Chris Philp, is supporting DEMOC and focussed on planning in his speech last night.

He said: “They are abusing the powers that the planning committee has to grant planning applications indiscriminately in the borough, most of all in the south of the borough.

“There are places it is reasonable to build flats, these are brownfield sites and Croydon town centre. They should be perusing a brownfield first policy.

“Time and time again people have been there to plead with the planning committee to listen but they never do.”

And a representative from South Croydon Labour Party, Jo Milligan, said that the campaign was not about party politics.

She said: “Some things are bigger than party politics this is about the power that is within all of us to influence decisions at a local level and hold our decision makers to account.

“If we get 15,000 signatures on a petition that is quite a big signal to the politicians about what the strength of feeling is, that in itself is powerful.”

But not everybody is on board with the campaign. Councillor Sean Fitzsimons who is chair of the council’s overview and scrutiny committee took to Twitter with his reservations.

In response to claims that the new system would impact on planning applications he said: “It doesn’t matter who is elected mayor, they don’t decide planning applications and can’t appoint the planning committee.

“Planning decisions are made by the planning committee, which is appointed by, and made up of, local councillors.”

Now DEMOC is calling on residents to get signatures for the petition and hopes to set up street stalls to gather supporters.