Three candidates confirmed for ballot sheet to become first East Midlands mayor

At least three candidates have now been confirmed on the ballot sheet for the election to appoint the East Midlands’ first regional mayor.

Voters across Nottingham, Nottinghamshire, Derby and Derbyshire are expected to go to the polls next May to select the first person for the role.

It comes as part of the region’s £1.14bn devolution deal signed with ministers last year aimed at bringing extra cash and spending power to local leaders.

The vote is the first of its kind in the East Midlands and is planned to redress per-head spending imbalances in the region compared with neighbouring areas.

Overall, it will bring at least £38m every year for 30 years to invest in projects relating to public health, transport, education and skills, housing, economic development and the environment.

Further cash will also be provided during annual Whitehall budgets and spending reviews aimed at boosting locally-led projects in the region.

The regional mayor plan is similar to deals already in place across other regions like Greater Manchester, the West Midlands and South Yorkshire.

The powers and funding will be monitored by a new combined authority, made up of representatives from the city and county councils which signed the deal.

Further seats on the authority will be handed to ‘non-constituent’ district and borough councils across the two counties as well as to industry leaders.

Leicestershire and Leicester councils did not opt to join the combined authority, despite it being officially named ‘East Midlands’.

The authority will then be controlled by an elected political mayor – similar to Labour’s Andy Burnham in Greater Manchester – who will dictate policy direction and have budget-setting powers.

This person is due to be elected in May next year pending the official legislation – the Levelling Up and Regeneration Bill – passes through Parliament in the coming months.

Now the two largest political parties have officially confirmed their candidates for the poll after the Conservatives selected Ben Bradley this weekend.

Councillor Bradley, Mansfield’s MP and the leader of Nottinghamshire County Council, was long rumoured for the role and officially confirmed his candidacy this summer.

The party then selected him as its candidate following a selection process on Saturday (September 16). He stood against Cllr Barry Lewis, leader of Derbyshire County Council.

Councillor Bradley told the Local Democracy Reporting Service: “I’ve been working on this for two years and I’m the only person in the contest who really understands what an opportunity this is for us to invest.

“I’m from and know all of these places. I grew up in north Derbyshire, went to school in Derby, I went to university in Nottingham and I live and work in north Nottinghamshire now.

“This is my home, it’s where my family is from and I’ve got those links across the whole region.

“I’m looking forward to a busy eight months and a campaign to get that across, and also to get people interested and engaged with what this is about.”

He will stand against Claire Ward, the candidate Labour selected for the poll at the start of August.

Ms Ward was previously Labour MP for Watford MP from 1997 to 2010 and currently sits as chair of Sherwood Forest Hospitals NHS Trust.

She secured victory against Paddy Tipping, the former Nottinghamshire police and crime commissioner, and John Hess, the former BBC East Midlands political editor, following a summer hustings.

She told the Local Democracy Reporting Service: “The East Midlands has been overlooked for far too long, the Government talks about ‘levelling up’ the north and south but we get forgotten.

“It has some of the greatest potential, a rich industrial heritage, and I want to bring investment into it to significantly improve our job opportunities.

“It’s not a great deal and I’d like to have seen more money and greater powers, particularly around health and social care.

“The opportunity to get back into politics to try and address some of this, I think, will improve the health and wellbeing for all.”

The third confirmed candidate on the ballot sheet is councillor Matt Relf, Ashfield District Council’s cabinet member for growth, regeneration and local planning.

He was the cabinet member responsible for securing the authority’s £62.6m Towns Fund deal among other packages and has recently been selected as the leader of the Independent group at East Midlands Councils.

He previously told the Local Democracy Reporting Service: “I’m born and bred in this area, I love it and I want to see it prosper.

“The Government has decided this [devolution deal] is going to happen and there are money and powers that come with it. We’d be daft not to take it.

“I’ve got experience and background in business, running my own since 2009, I have a great deal of background around transport planning and we’ve done a great deal of work here around skills.

“These are going to be the main tenets of the combined authority.”