Residents of Bristol voted for an elected mayor because they felt a single leader would be more responsive and wield greater powers to improve local services, an academic study has found.

Bristolians – who were the only one of ten English cities to vote for a mayor in last year's mayoral referendums – viewed the former system of leader and cabinet as unaccountable and ineffective in terms of decision-making, research conducted by the University of Bristol and the University of the West of England (UWE) shows.