An award-nominated nurse and social care leader has launched a campaign calling for a directly elected mayor to lead Plymouth, saying the city deserves accountability, authenticity and change.
Cindy Wilcocks, who was shortlisted for the Florence Nightingale Nurse of the Year Award and named one of the top 10 nurses in the UK, is the founder of mental health organisation Arterne CIC and has now launched her new 'Care for a Mayor' campaign.
She is urging Plymouth residents to vote in favour of a directly elected mayor in the upcoming referendum on Thursday 17 July. She said:
"Essentially I want change. I’m a believer in if you do what you’ve always done you’ll get what you’ve always got, and this provides an alternative that Plymouth hasn’t taken up.
"I think it’s about accountability, where there are policies that haven’t been achieved. People should be accountable for their actions. I work in education, health and social care and for a long time we’ve struggled and struggled and struggled for a variety of reasons.
"I know that comes from the Government but I also think there are some things that are localised that can actually be changed to make a difference.”
Ms Wilcocks qualified as a registered mental health nurse in 2000. She has since founded two organisations, Arterne CIC and Arterne 2 Nurse Limited, which provide support, consultancy and innovation across care, education and workforce training.
Her work spans mentoring, service transformation, music workshops and frontline mental health care.
Her message is one of urgency and hope. She added:
"I think that when you have someone who has been in a leadership position for such a long time and they remain unchallenged you lose the confidence of people. There are certain things we’ve seen no progress on."
Ms Wilcocks believes Plymouth has been held back by missed opportunities and a lack of long-term thinking:
“I’m very community-driven and involving the local people doesn’t always get done. Things don’t change and don’t get challenged.
"There are missed opportunities for Plymouth as a city, it’s a beautiful location, I’ve lived in Australia and you could be sitting on the Hoe and feel like you could be at Sydney Harbour.
"But we haven’t had the foresight to bring Plymouth into an arena to make it money and to put it on the map.”
She adds that a directly elected mayor should not just be someone with political credentials but someone who puts the community first:
“I would want a Plymouth leader to be genuine and authentic. Some of my reservations about the campaign is not having someone in post just because they can market themselves really well, but to have someone who has community at the heart of it, to have heart, have integrity and be authentic, and to stop playing the Game of Thrones.
"I like the fact that it’s not associated with one political party and could be someone who is not afraid to try something different.”
Her conclusion is clear:
“I want to see change. I want to see people held accountable for our city and what happens in our city.
"I want opportunities in our city for our children. They shouldn’t have to move out of our city to get that.
"I just think change is needed. I don’t want to stay in a system where challenges don’t get met.”
Voters in Plymouth will go to the polls on Thursday 17 July to decide whether the city should move to a system with a directly elected mayor.
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