Independent Councillor Matthew Relf, a leading Ashfield Councillor is the Independent Choice to be the first Mayor of the East Midlands’ Combined Authority.
Councillor Relf, sits as the most successful councillor in England – having secured over £100million in regeneration money to transform Ashfield. Matthew claims that party politics has let down Derby, Derbyshire, Nottingham and Nottinghamshire down for decades with the East Midlands the “forgotten region” in England. He is confident of delivering positive change.
Matthew, a successful IT businessman as well as Executive Lead Member for Growth, Regeneration and Local Planning on Ashfield District Council said, “I am uniquely placed to be the first mayor of the East Midlands with extensive experience in transport and regeneration planning and being known as somebody who gets things done and delivers results.
“Ashfield is being transformed before our eyes. This is because I led community and partnership based bids that focussed on delivering projects that would bring not just local benefits but broad regional ones too. For far too long, we have been let down by party politics with small numbers of party leaders overruling local voices. We need a new Mayor who puts residents in our region first and works collaboratively with others, not someone who is at the beck and call of party leaders in Whitehall who will seek to override the powers of locally elected representatives.”
Matthew was voted by both Conservative and Labour council leaders to represent all Nottinghamshire Borough and Districts on the D2N2 board, is the leader of the Independent councillor group at East Midlands Councils, sits on the Nottinghamshire Economic Prosperity Committee and has a proven track record of getting on with everybody and getting things done.
Matthew is married with one daughter, has lived in the local area his entire life and has strong family and business links across both Derbyshire and Nottinghamshire. He has run his own IT business since 2009 which has offered consultancy services to various companies as well as highways and built environment authorities across the UK. In 2014 he also designed, patented and launched his own innovative laptop peripheral that he sold on in 2021. He was elected as an Ashfield Independent councillor on Ashfield District Council in 2018 and holds the record for the highest share of the vote ever recorded in the District with 88% of the vote in the Sutton Junction and Harlow Wood council ward. In June 2021, he secured £62.6 million for Ashfield as part of the government’s Towns Fund. Double the amount of any council in the country.
Councillor Relf added, “I am fighting a campaign aimed at delivering the funding that Derby, Derbyshire, Nottingham and Nottinghamshire deserve. My team and I are already knocking on doors and taking our fight, house by house, street by street, village by village, town by town and city by city. Our region deserves better than vanity contests between the same, old political parties. Our fight for a prosperous region starts now and we intend to win.”