Ben Bradley column: It's a huge opportunity to finally solve some of our biggest challenges

The mayor will lead a Combined Authority with an initial budget of £4 billion. It’s a huge opportunity for Mansfield, and I want to explain why I’m the right person for this role, and what it will mean for our town if I’m elected.

Across places like the West Midlands, Manchester and Teesside, the Government has offered billions in funding to fix the roads, improve public transport and bring in new investment for high-skilled, well-paid jobs.

The catch is that these regions like ours, with millions of people living there, need to elect a mayor to be responsible for spending this money.

It’s not a new council, or an extra layer of Government - it actually replaces a number of existing organisations – but it’s powers and money from Whitehall brought up here, where we know best how to spend it.

It’s a huge opportunity to finally solve some of our biggest challenges, ones I haven’t had the levers to fix in my current job.

It’s money that can resurface the roads, transform public transport with new integrated ticketing, and expand On Demand buses so you can get about easier, and for less money.

It’s also about improving adult education and skills, training people up for the jobs of the future, and better connecting businesses to our Universities and colleges, so that they can provide people with the skills to pay the bills.

The mayor will help us build on the partnerships we’ve already secured for our town, like the one between NTU and West Notts College, so that local Mansfield residents can work in exciting cutting-edge industries like STEP fusion clean energy based just down the road.

As Mansfield’s MP I’ve secured £72 million in Levelling-Up money, to redevelop Stockwell Gate and our high streets, build a new leisure centre in Warsop, and improve people’s access to our town centre.

Our new mayor will have even more of this funding, and will be able to better distribute it across towns like ours, to accelerate regeneration plans and help us do more, faster – solving the delays and getting spades into the ground.

So from day one, I will kick off a major resurfacing programme across all our roads, and provide the support needed to urgently address long-awaited investment into our town.

But we need to choose the right person for this role, and let me be clear that if elected this will be my only role.

If we choose the wrong person with no plan and no knowledge of our area, they could make a real mess and leave us behind.

It’s vital we pick the right person who has a track record of delivery for towns like ours.