Embattled city council leader looks forward to more time for reading and ‘being a better son’
DAVID MELLEN STEPPING DOWN AFTER FIVE TUMULTUOUS YEARS
DAVID Mellen is getting ready for a quieter life. Nottingham City Council’s leader is in the final throes of a five-year period in office which has been marked by crisis after crisis.
The former school head teacher, originally from Ipswich, was clearly under no illusions when taking over from Jon Collins in 2019. One of his early acts was to shut down Robin Hood Energy, a project which Nottingham Labour still says was created with the best of intentions but which ended up being a financial disaster for the city’s taxpayers.
Yet closing down the energy company which once boasted Jeremy Corbyn as a customer now seems to pale in comparison to some of the other crises which Councillor Mellen has faced during his tenure.
A huge amount of illegal spending from the council’s housing revenue account was soon uncovered, with the Government eventually installing a board of officials to oversee improvements in Nottingham.
These officials have since been replaced just recently by commissioners, a group of three officials who have much more power over the council. This decision came after the authority effectively declared bankruptcy late last year, with tight spending controls set to remain in Nottingham until 2025.
Ahead of turning 60 in September, Councillor Mellen’s announcement that he will not stand to be Nottingham City Council’s leader again this year is no surprise. When taking the job on, Councillor Mellen always said he only wanted to do five or six years anyway.
The role has clearly begun to take a toll, with Councillor Mellen being one of many elected members who were moved to tears when approving a budget of multi-million-pound cuts for Nottingham at the beginning of March.
He has regularly lambasted the Conservative Government as incompetent, cruel and uncaring for having starved councils like Nottingham of funding since 2010, yet Councillor Mellen also admits there have been issues of the council’s own making.
“I think as a council we perhaps didn’t take enough account of risk and that is something that I think we’ve brought more into the everyday pattern of council activity,” Councillor Mellen says.
“I shut down Robin Hood Energy as quickly as possible after I started being leader, the intu collapse in the middle of Covid gave us a real challenge with the Broadmarsh Centre; the castle went into bankruptcy under a charitable trust.
“Mostly it’s circumstantial, but obviously there were things that I picked up as a new leader and there are things that have happened since, not least the financial crisis that many councils are in. There’s certainly going to be pressures (for) whoever takes on the job.”
The crises at the council itself would have been enough, but Councillor Mellen’s five years in post have also seen him steering Nottingham through some of its darkest moments. He was in meetings every morning for seven days a week at the start of the pandemic, which saw more than 1,000 people in Nottingham losing their lives to the virus.
Councillor Mellen was visibly moved when paying tribute to Helen Blackman, the council’s former director of integrated children’s services, who died from covid aged just 54 after having worked at Nottingham City Council since 1998.
Reflecting on that period, he said: “Covid was very difficult, there were a lot of fearful people. Fearful of what might happen to them, fearful of taking the vaccine, and obviously a lot of isolation with all of us having to work from home.”
Councillor Mellen also had a key role as Nottingham paid its respects to Queen Elizabeth following her death in September 2022. Undoubtedly though, one of the most difficult times during his tenure, and one of the most difficult times of late for Nottingham as a whole, were the devastating attacks in the city on June 13, 2023. The council leader spoke at the vigil in Old Market Square in which thousands came together to remember Ian Coates, Grace O’malley-kumar and Barnaby Webber.
Councillor Mellen said: “The three deaths last year were a huge shock for the city and for the families of Ian, Grace and Barnaby, it’s something they’ll never get over, I’m sure. The sense when everybody came together in the market square and at the university campus was a sense of a city coming together to mourn together.”
Despite all the crises, successes for Councillor Mellen have included the reopening of Nottingham Castle, the opening of the new Central Library, the building of new council houses in Bestwood and the redevelopment of Collin Street.
He said: “It’s been a hard job, but it’s been a great job in many ways and a great honour to lead the city.
Working with 54 other councillors and officers of the council to try and do the best we can in difficult circumstances is a challenge, but it’s also a privilege.”
It is perhaps a reflection of the political turbulence across the country that ahead of Councillor Mellen stepping down in May, he says the leader of every single other English city council has changed since he took up the reins in Nottingham.
Five years may seem a short administration after the mammoth 16 years as leader clocked up by Jon Collins, but former Nottingham leaders like John Taylor and Brian Parbutt only served two years and one year respectively.
Labour will select its next leader at a meeting on April 15 before they officially take office in May. Looking ahead to whoever takes over from him, Councillor Mellen said: “I would imagine it will be quiet for a little while. I think my successor needs time to find their feet and establish a new leadership, and I would be wanting to support them in any way that I can.”
Councillor Mellen’s time in Nottingham has included serving as the Dales ward councillor since 2007 and before his council career, 21 years of teaching saw him work at the Jesse Boot Junior School before moving to the Crossdale Drive Primary in Keyworth and eventually serving as head teacher at the Mellers School in Radford.
When asked if being council leader had given him any new perspective on the city, Councillor Mellen said: “I think I’ve met different groups of people – different ethnicities, different ages, different backgrounds. All of them have something in common – they love our city and they want the best for it. “I’m an adopted Nottinghamian. I came here as an 18-year-old to go to Trent Polytechnic from a rural village in Suffolk and I’ve really got to love city life.
“I think there’s a good spirit within Nottingham and people get on with each other well, which is something that I take great pleasure from.” Asked what his future might look like, Councillor Mellen said: “One of the things I’ve taken probably the greatest pleasure from is the book charity that I’ve been involved in for 13 years and we’ve now donated over half a million free books to children in Nottingham. Hopefully, without the responsibility of leader, I’ll be able to put a little bit more into that.
“I’d like a bit more time to read. I like swimming, so I’d like to do more of that.
“My parents are well, but advancing in years and I’d like to be a better son to them. They live 150 miles away, so I need some time to spend more time with them. “There are many other things that the city will offer. I think my first priority is to take it easy for a few weeks just to catch up with myself.”
It’s been a hard job, but it’s been a great job in many ways.
David Mellen