South Yorkshire Mayoral Combined Authority

Councillor Rachael Blake.

SHEFFIELD CITY REGION MAYOR

This week, the Labour Party reduced its line-up of candidates for the Sheffield City Region Mayoral election from a field of seven to a shortlist of four. Three of the candidates are from Sheffield and one – Councillor Rachael Blake, is from Doncaster. The election is due to take place in May when current Mayor Dan Jarvis will stand down. South Yorkshire will use the supplementary vote system, where if a candidate receives more than 50% of the first preference vote, they win. If none of the candidates achieves 50% then the top two candidates proceed to the second round and the other candidates are eliminated. Labour party members are expected to vote for their preferred candidate on 5^th January.

Oliver Coppard stood as the parliamentary candidate for Labour in 2015, running Nick Clegg very close in the race to be MP in Sheffield Hallam. Jayne Dunne is a Sheffield councillor in the city’s Southey ward and Lewis Dagnall is married to Sheffield Hallam MP Olivia Blake. He is a former Sheffield Councillor that represented the Gleadless Valley ward, who currently works at Sheffield University.   

Councillor Rachael Blake was first elected to Doncaster Council in 2015 and was elected to cabinet two years later. She’s currently responsible for the Children’s social care, communities and equalities portfolio.

The role of Mayor demands someone that is good at networking and able to bring all the different councils together. The successful candidate will also need a good understanding of the diversity in the region. To fulfil the role properly will also demand a commitment to put in the long hours. Councillor Blake says “Over the last 30-odd years, I’ve always gone out to the public, not expected them to come to me. I love to get out there and find out what matters to people. Whether it be buses, new jobs, training or fly-tipping; so many people tell me in my street surgeries – I’m so pleased that someone is listening and someone cares. I’m not a career politician, I’m all about local government. I’m not in for myself. None of my friends are in politics – I’m not middle class. I’m just honest. If you tell people the truth, they often understand. If you say yes, we could increase this service but we’d have to cancel these services, they understand if you explain. It’s also important to speak in layman’s terms. People don’t want jargon and acronyms. I really take pride in authenticity. If people go away not understanding, I’ve not done my job properly.”

Rachael grew up in Cleethorpes, where her Jamaican dad worked on the docks. “He arrived in 1944, part of a group of people often forgotten. He wasn’t on the Windrush but he came here and worked hard to help to rebuild the country and served in the RAF,” she said.

Councillor Blake, who is the only BAME candidate selected, has chaired many committees and remembers being invited to speak at a chair’s workshop. “It was a very white area of the North West and they’d always traditionally had white male chairs. When I walked in the room someone said to me – you know this meeting is for chairs, don’t you? I’m very proud to be mixed race. I think it’s really important that when people walk into a room, they see someone who looks like them in a position of responsibility. They need someone they can relate to. I think electing a BAME mayor would be really positive, but I’m not into gesture politics. I don’t want to be there as a token.”

Seeing first hand – in Grimsby, the damage done when an industry is eroded, she knows the importance of retraining and reskilling those workforces. With automation looming for many manufacturers, that could be vital – particularly for a region such as the South Yorkshire Mayoral combined authority. Ms Blake – a single parent, is also aware of the need for proper education. “The starting point needs to be more funding. The money schools receive in other areas such as London is much higher. There are so many barriers to our young people. It’s not a lack of aspiration or a lack of skills, it’s doors slamming shut. I went to a Comprehensive school in Cleethorpes. I didn’t go to university – like many of my school friends, it was just too expensive. Living costs are so high today at University. It’s not just the price of the courses. It’s the day to day living. High-level apprenticeships are what we really need for our young people. The mayor’s job is to get out there and persuade employers to use the student levy to invest in degrees, real apprenticeships and job guarantee schemes.”

When current Mayor Dan Jarvis was elected, the position was powerless and had no salary attached to it. Jarvis secured a deal with the local authorities that meant there are now statutory powers and a salary of £79,000. The successful candidate will have powers over transport, strategic planning and coordinating investment and skills. Some people still question the powers that the office of mayor holds but Rachael Blake believes the power of persuasion is one of the most important ones.

Public transport is always high on the agenda of any local politician, and Councillor Blake still catches the bus around her ward daily. “If we are to address the climate issue, for me we need Green buses. We need cultural change. If we are going to get cars off the road and commuters onto buses then they need to be cleaner, more reliable and more affordable.”

Like many of South Yorkshire’s residents, Rachael remembers the good old days of 10p journeys and 2p for the kids. “I’d want to investigate whether there’s an appetite for bringing the buses back into public ownership. The focus has to be on the needs of residents, not profit for the shareholders. There’s a climate emergency. Other authorities that have been given much higher funding, have electric buses and trams and overground trains, and the buses are packed.”

Councillor Blake is chair of the Health and Wellbeing Board in Doncaster, where they have worked with many partners to address health and social care issues, taking a different approach to wellbeing – with one of those different approaches being around dance. “Dance and physical education is brilliant. We’ve been providing classes for our residents that over the age of 55 and we’ve seen it improves their fitness levels, their balance, and their mental health. It’s had a really positive effect on their independence, which ultimately relieves pressure on the NHS. It’s a fantastic example of talking to people, understanding the starting point and making suggestions on how to make things better.”