Yahoo News Elected Mayor of North Tyneside Dame Norma Redfearn will not seek re-election next year
The Elected Mayor of North Tyneside has announced she will step down and not seek re-election in 2025.
An email sent to local party members on Monday, seen by the Local Democracy Reporting Service, confirms that the incumbent Mayor Dame Norma Redfearn will step aside next year. She has held the post since 2013, having beaten her Conservative rival at the time Linda Arkley.
The move now triggers the process to select her replacement as the Labour candidate in next year’s North Tyneside Mayoral election.
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Dame Norma said: “It has been a great honour to serve as Mayor of North Tyneside. I want to thank the residents for electing me to serve 12 years as Elected Mayor of this borough. I will not be seeking re-election next year when my third term ends.
“During the last 11 years, we’ve achieved a lot, despite the mess we inherited from the previous Conservative administration in 2013 and a hostile Tory Government. I’ll spend my last year as I did my first, focusing on building a better North Tyneside and making the borough a better place to live, work, and visit.
“I look forward to campaigning for a Labour Government later this year and for the Labour candidate to be the next Mayor of North Tyneside.”
Dame Norma was first elected to North Tyneside council in 2004, representing the ward of Riverside. She went on to serve in the local authority’s cabinet as the cabinet member responsible for children and young people under the then-leadership of John Harrison from 2005 to 2009.
The North Tyneside Labour stalwart also acted as the interim Mayor for the North of Tyne Combined Authority from December 2018 to May 2, 2019. This was followed by Jamie Driscoll's tenure from 2019 until 2024.
Before politics, the Mayor had enjoyed a thirty-year career in teaching and was the head teacher at West Walker Primary School.
A Labour Party spokesperson said: “We’d like to thank Dame Norma for everything she has done for the people of North Tyneside as their elected Mayor over the last 12 years. She has been a passionate advocate for North Tyneside and the wider North East and played a major part in negotiating the devolution deal which delivered the region’s first-ever Mayor. She can be incredibly proud of all she has achieved.”
