East Midlands mayoral candidate: Matthew Relf

Matthew Relf is standing as an independent candidate

People living in the East Midlands Combined County Authority (the four local authorities of Derby, Derbyshire, Nottingham and Nottinghamshire) will elect their first regional mayor on 2 May. Here's what you need to know about all of the candidates and their top priorities.

Matthew Relf says the mayor should be 'free of influence from London'

The local businessman first got involved in politics in 2018 and was elected to Ashfield District Council.

He is a member of the Ashfield Independents on that authority, but says he would leave the group if elected as mayor.

He says he is running "because I have the skillset the new combined authority needs".

"I think we'd be right to have an independent mayor who is free of influence from London, so we can speak up for what is right for the region and answer only to the electorate of the region," he says.

He says the role of mayor is about 'fact-finding, first of all'

He says because the combined authority is brand new, a lot of the initial work will be about "mobilising the creation of the authority itself".

If elected as mayor, Mr Relf says he would conduct a "full review" of transport, skills, and business support.

"We don't have a single picture of everything in the region, and we need that before we can design the strategies going forward," he says.

He says 'I'm the only candidate who knows how to fix potholes'

Mr Relf says he spent 10 years working on highways contracts, and wants the local highways authorities to work closer together to repair the region's roads.

He says councils should "bring in better systems and approaches so that we can spend the money that is there better".

He also wants to "fill holes in our public transport network" and "work with transport operators to bring together timetables", so people can understand what public transport is on offer across the region.

He says businesses across the East Midlands can 'thrive', but need more support and investment

Mr Relf says the mayor "needs to work with all the skills offerings so we can get people into jobs with the skills businesses need", in order to make firms more efficient.

He also says the region needs a housing strategy that provides "affordable places to live" whilst helping to tackle climate change.

"We're seeing significant parts of our region under water more and more regularly and we need to be doing our part to tackle that," he says.

He wants to introduce integrated ticketing and transport information

If elected, he says the most ambitious project in the first term would be a new transport system "so that you can go to one place to say, what are my options for getting from A to B?"

He adds that, under his plans, you would be able to buy a single ticket "that will take you all the through across whatever mode of transport you want to use".