Mansfield DC has a directly-elected mayor, a system which is ideal for the authority, its managing director, Ruth Marlow (above), tells Heather Jameson
Mansfield DC’s offices sit next to a huge building site housing a new Tesco. Managing director Ruth Marlow says it is a matter of great pride to the council’s head of planning that it is a brick-clad building.
It is testimony to efforts to improve the area – which had become down-trodden and grubby – while hanging on to its character.
Born and brought up in Sheffield, Ruth went to university in Birmingham to study biological science and geography. She married soon after she finished her degree, and made a deal with her husband to move to wherever the first one of them got a job.
Although the vague plan was to train as a teacher, they ended up in Nottingham, and Ruth took a job in the housing department of the city council. She spent 12 years there, first, on housing allocations, then running the homelessness service and finally, as an area housing manager.
She then took a job as assistant director of housing at Oaby and Wigston BC – but it only for six months, before she was made director of consumer service – her ‘first step into broader, frontline services’.
In 1997, at the age of 36, she became, at the time, one of the youngest chief executives in the country when she was hired for the top job at North Kesteven. She was there for eight years before the Mansfield job – as managing director of the council – came up, offering the chance to work with a directly-elected mayor.
‘After eight years with a committee then cabinet-led council, I was keen to work for a council with a mayor,’ she says. That was 18 months ago.
‘There is definitely a difference,’ she says. It is not a system she would advocate for all councils, but it does work in Mansfield.
‘The mayor is such a central figure in the town, and in the area as a whole,’ she says. ‘But there isn’t the same connection between the mayor of the council as there is with a leader. Perhaps because the mayor here is independent.’
As a result, much of her time is spent liaising with the council, the mayor and the staff. The mayor does have the advantage being high profile, and very connected with the community – all key to the Local Government Bill.
When the mayor came to power, he gave Mansfield – which had become run down after the decimation of its textile and mining industries – a new vision of a place which people could be proud of and where people believed they could make something of themselves.
‘The mayoral system suits that confidence-building,’ she says. ‘Mayors are a figurehead to support the community.’
The former Labour stronghold turned to the mayoral system when the local business community felt the party was letting the council down. It opted for an independent mayor, and then went from a council which was almost exclusively Labour to one with 39 independents out of 46.
Fears that the mayor would be ousted by a bid for power from the local MP were unfounded. Instead, he saw his majority grow.
Since he came to power, Ruth says the town has also seen massive improvements in customer satisfaction, particularly in the council’s priority areas of crime and clean and green issues.
The results of a recent CPA re-assessment have not been announced for what was previously a ‘weak’ authority, but she is hopeful that they, too, will show improvement.
‘The mayor’s electoral address included a commitment to lobby to reduce the number councillors and move to single member wards.’
There could also be plans for a unitary bid in future, should the door be left open.
‘The council did support us in exploring whether a unitary bid would be feasible,’ says Ruth. ‘But the short timeframe just wasn’t enough for us to build a good business case. The mayor is on record as an advocate of the unitary system.’
Ruth has vowed to keep a close eye on what goes on with the current unitary bids. Given that Nottingham and Luton have said they would both like to expand the city boundaries, it could be that the battle for unitary status may continue – especially in Nottinghamshire.
So far, Ruth’s career has been focused around the East Midlands, all within one hour’s drive from her Nottingham home.
Now her three children are older – the eldest is at university and the youngest is taking GCSEs – she says the world is her oyster, but for the moment there is a lot to do in Mansfield. n
It is testimony to efforts to improve the area – which had become down-trodden and grubby – while hanging on to its character.
Born and brought up in Sheffield, Ruth went to university in Birmingham to study biological science and geography. She married soon after she finished her degree, and made a deal with her husband to move to wherever the first one of them got a job.
Although the vague plan was to train as a teacher, they ended up in Nottingham, and Ruth took a job in the housing department of the city council. She spent 12 years there, first, on housing allocations, then running the homelessness service and finally, as an area housing manager.
She then took a job as assistant director of housing at Oaby and Wigston BC – but it only for six months, before she was made director of consumer service – her ‘first step into broader, frontline services’.
In 1997, at the age of 36, she became, at the time, one of the youngest chief executives in the country when she was hired for the top job at North Kesteven. She was there for eight years before the Mansfield job – as managing director of the council – came up, offering the chance to work with a directly-elected mayor.
‘After eight years with a committee then cabinet-led council, I was keen to work for a council with a mayor,’ she says. That was 18 months ago.
‘There is definitely a difference,’ she says. It is not a system she would advocate for all councils, but it does work in Mansfield.
‘The mayor is such a central figure in the town, and in the area as a whole,’ she says. ‘But there isn’t the same connection between the mayor of the council as there is with a leader. Perhaps because the mayor here is independent.’
As a result, much of her time is spent liaising with the council, the mayor and the staff. The mayor does have the advantage being high profile, and very connected with the community – all key to the Local Government Bill.
When the mayor came to power, he gave Mansfield – which had become run down after the decimation of its textile and mining industries – a new vision of a place which people could be proud of and where people believed they could make something of themselves.
‘The mayoral system suits that confidence-building,’ she says. ‘Mayors are a figurehead to support the community.’
The former Labour stronghold turned to the mayoral system when the local business community felt the party was letting the council down. It opted for an independent mayor, and then went from a council which was almost exclusively Labour to one with 39 independents out of 46.
Fears that the mayor would be ousted by a bid for power from the local MP were unfounded. Instead, he saw his majority grow.
Since he came to power, Ruth says the town has also seen massive improvements in customer satisfaction, particularly in the council’s priority areas of crime and clean and green issues.
The results of a recent CPA re-assessment have not been announced for what was previously a ‘weak’ authority, but she is hopeful that they, too, will show improvement.
‘The mayor’s electoral address included a commitment to lobby to reduce the number councillors and move to single member wards.’
There could also be plans for a unitary bid in future, should the door be left open.
‘The council did support us in exploring whether a unitary bid would be feasible,’ says Ruth. ‘But the short timeframe just wasn’t enough for us to build a good business case. The mayor is on record as an advocate of the unitary system.’
Ruth has vowed to keep a close eye on what goes on with the current unitary bids. Given that Nottingham and Luton have said they would both like to expand the city boundaries, it could be that the battle for unitary status may continue – especially in Nottinghamshire.
So far, Ruth’s career has been focused around the East Midlands, all within one hour’s drive from her Nottingham home.
Now her three children are older – the eldest is at university and the youngest is taking GCSEs – she says the world is her oyster, but for the moment there is a lot to do in Mansfield. n
