Jarvis speaks to civic leaders across district on first day as mayor

SOUTH YORKSHIRE’S first metro-mayor is to speak to local leaders today as he begins his first day in his role.

Labour MP Dan Jarvis, inset, who secured a landslide victory in last Thursday’s election, has confirmed he will speak first to local leaders and aims to meet with them in person soon.

He has also made it clear that he will first brief local leaders over his intentions before going public with his plans as the newly elected mayor for the Sheffield City Region.

The former paratrooper secured 144,154 votes after secondpreference votes were counted last week, while Conservative candidate Ian Walker came second with 50,619 votes.

It gave the new mayor nearly three times as many votes as his nearest rival, and he intends to perform his new role while remaining a Westminster MP.

He told The Yorkshire Post on Friday he will be under pressure to end the damaging devolution dispute between the county’s rival council leaders.

A lack of agreement among South Yorkshire’s four council leaders means Mr Jarvis will not have access to the £30m a year and extra powers promised as part of a devolution deal signed with George Osborne in 2015.

And the Barnsley MP, who has spoken of his hopes to eventually bring about a wider One Yorkshire devolution deal, said his “big challenge is working together with the four local authorities to reach a consensus”.