The campaign for an elected mayor in Oxford has raised half the signatures required to trigger a referendum on the issue.
The Local Government Act 2000 says councils must hold a referendum if five per cent of voters want one.
In Oxford, that equates to 5,100 voters, and the Campaign for a Democratically Elected Mayor (Demox) has now collected its 2,600th signature.
One of Demox's leading campaigners, county councillor John Power, a former Lord Mayor of the city, said he was confident that the required number of signatures would be collected this year.
He believes that an elected mayor would be a fairer system of local government than the one the city council has chosen - a leader and Cabinet system, which will replace the existing committee system later this year.
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