City Hall: the new site in Newham

• AS you indicated in your editorial (The mayoral election: a ballot on what we don’t want, Comment, April 25) it is a pity that the London mayoral election campaign has lacked new ideas that might galvanise voter involvement – and in reporting the result the first important statistic must be the size of the turnout.

Regarding major issues and problems, you say “there will occasionally be some challenging questions to the mayor” – and one of these may well be to evaluate the merit of the move from the City Hall designed by Foster and Associates, to the new location by the Royal Docks.

Foster’s website says of their version that “City Hall is one of the capital’s most symbolically important projects, which expresses the transparency of the democratic process and demonstrates the potential for a wholly sustainable, virtually non-polluting public building… The Assembly chamber’s… glass enclosure allows Londoners to watch the Assembly at work. Members of the public are also invited to share the building: a flexible space on the top floor… can be used for exhibitions or functions, and the public commands the rooftop, where a terrace offers unparalleled views across London. At the base is a piazza with a café, from which the riverside can be enjoyed. Lifts and gentle ramps allow universal access throughout the building. …Overall, it will use only a quarter of the energy consumed by a typical air-conditioned office building.”

This vision of public access at one of London’s most prominent and central sites has been cancelled by the move eastwards.

It would be welcome for a newly-elected mayor to clarify how much has been gained financially and “iconically” by the move of our London citizens’ headquarters to its current site.

MALLORY WOBER, NW3