It is no coincidence that as the 1831 Historic Royal Oak Hotel is expunged from the panorama of Parramatta, the Sunday Telegraph questions the merry-go-round mayoralty in Western Sydney’s capital. (Call for a mayor with Parramattitude, ST, 7/6). Without a local champion, the impending sacrifice of the 1860 Willow Grove mansion for the Powerhouse Museum proceeds unabated. The mantra of economic development at all costs highlights the thinking of Macquarie St philistines, bereft of conscience and emboldened in their anonymity. Your proposed remedies of ward abolition and a popularly elected Lord Mayor are excellent. A prospective mayor should abandon political parties lest the role be reduced to unimaginative puppetry. An independent Lord Mayor, unfettered by the yoke of party bosses, will deliver much when the Sunday Telegraph’s sage advice is heeded. Alan Sexton North Parramatta. 14June2020.