Angela Rayner visits South Yorkshire for second ‘Mayoral Council meeting’

Following the inaugural “Mayoral Council meeting” in Newcastle in October, the second meeting was held at the Advanced Manufacturing Research Centre in South Yorkshire where at the centre of the discussion was devolution.

While the meeting was not open to the public or the media, Oliver Coppard, the South Yorkshire mayor told the Local Democracy Reporting Service (LDRS) that he had a “positive” meeting with the mayors and the deputy prime minister (and other ministers from the treasury and other teams).

He said: “(They) talked with me and other mayors about exactly what we want to see from the government go forward, how we can move forward on their plans for devolution, how we can move forward on their plans on the spending review and all those things we want to see here in South Yorkshire.”

Is there something they could agree on today?

Mr Coppard said one of the things the government wants is “to bring more capacity to my organisation so we can do more for South Yorkshire”.

“Right now we’re a fairly small organisation but with big and ambitious plans,” he added.

Mr Coppard mentioned “moving forward” a lot – but how are we going to do so?

He told the LDRS that the government had published a White Paper which is essentially their plan for how devolution would be – this is something that he says would put more power into places like South Yorkshire.

The deputy prime minister Angela Rayner “leads the agenda”, Mr Coppard added as it’s her responsibility to make sure that devolution is working and it’s going further and faster.

He said: “The last government did some good things, it’s fair to say. We’re the UK’s first investment zone because of the last government but this government has got massive plans on devolution which I’m really pleased about.”

When are we, the people of South Yorkshire, going to see the benefits of this development? We are already beginning to feel it, Mr Coppard said.

He was talking about the investment zone creating jobs, the tram being back under public control, the bus franchising process, and more.

“The devolution is changing people’s lives and it will continue to pick up pace with this government and me in charge,” he added.

Mr Coppard also met Orgreave campaigners today and said this is similar to the Hillsborough campaign as it’s also about injustice.

Striking coal miners from across the country descended on Orgreave in June 1984, and were met with force by thousands of police officers deployed from all over Britain.

The Battle of Orgreave became one of the most violent episodes in British industrial history, and 40 years later, many of those involved say they still need answers.

The Labour Party’s manifesto during the 2024 general election committed to ensuring that “the truth about the events at Orgreave comes to light”.

He said: “This is about an injustice that happened to our communities here in South Yorkshire and making sure those communities now get justice.

“That’s what this government has now promised, the mayors are supportive I know, the home secretary is supportive, I’m certainly supportive, we now need to make progress swiftly.”

But will justice be served?

“I absolutely hope that we will see justice but I’m not going to say ‘Yes, it has been served’ until the campaigners are telling me it’s been served,” Mr Coppard said.