South Yorkshire mayor candidate: Oliver Coppard

Oliver Coppard is one of five candidates campaigning to be Mayor of South Yorkshire

Oliver Coppard was elected as South Yorkshire’s first regional mayor in 2022.

During his career he has worked in Parliament, for Barnsley Council, for Sheffield City Region Local Enterprise Partnership and for the charity BookTrust.

In 2015 he ran to represent the Sheffield Hallam constituency, but lost out to Nick Clegg.

Born and raised in Sheffield, he describes himself as the UK’s only Jewish metro mayor.

He wants to increase public confidence in policing

He says some victims of crime, including women, girls and people from minority ethnic backgrounds, have all reported feeling less confident in policing - so work needs to be done to rectify this.

One pledge is to establish a "Community Confidence Board", to give people the opportunity to shape policing priorities.

He’s concerned South Yorkshire has been left behind

He says the biggest challenge is that South Yorkshire’s economy is neither big enough nor productive enough.

He wants more good jobs that pay well, with businesses operating on an international platform.

Mr Coppard believes many other problems can be solved by growing the economy.

Buses and the airport are top of his transport list

His aim is to invest in and extend South Yorkshire’s Supertram network, so it serves more communities and is more reliable.

The bus franchise process he started would continue, with a final decision to take buses back under public control within 12 months of the election.

Mr Coppard vows to continue with plans to re-open Doncaster Sheffield Airport and build a world-leading sustainable aviation hub at Gateway East.

He has already committed £138m to create South Yorkshire Airport City.

Working towards a net zero South Yorkshire

He ran the biggest regional citizens' assembly on the climate in the UK, asking people from across South Yorkshire to help build a plan for getting to net zero.

He has supported world-leading sustainable aviation companies to develop their manufacturing base in South Yorkshire and brought together local and national experts to create a "Local Nature Recovery Strategy".

In his own words