Whatever Cllr Amanda Marlow was expecting from her time as Mayor of Milton Keynes, it almost certainly wouldn’t have come anywhere close to how the reality of the past 12 months has unfolded.
Two days after she took the chain of office, it was announced Milton Keynes had been awarded city status to mark HM The Queen’s Platinum Jubilee. Less than three months later, Amanda found herself reading the Proclamation of King Charles III – making history as the first Mayor of Milton Keynes to do so, and, in February, she was on hand to welcome the new monarch when he visited to officially confer city status. Official duties in the city to mark the Coronation will round off a whirlwind 12 months.
Amanda commented:
“It’s fair to say it has been quite a year. Before I became Mayor, I’d done two or three local radio appearances linked to campaigns I’d been involved in as a councillor. That was it. Suddenly, two days after becoming Mayor I was on BBC national news being interviewed about city status. I’d had no media training, no real preparation, I just had to get on with it, and that was just the beginning of what turned out to be a historic year.”
Anyone who knows Amanda Marlow will not be surprised that ‘just getting on with it’ turned out so well. The seeds of her life in public service were sown more than a decade ago when she was forced to fight to get the best outcomes and education for her four children, three of whom have disabilities.
Taking on the education sector, medical professionals and, eventually, the council itself when it threatened to close much-needed nursery provision, brought out in Amanda the determination to fight the corners of those who needed help.
“There are all kinds of things I learned as a mum of children with disabilities,” she explained. “I learned to be a bit more questioning of professionals, seeing that just because people have all the training and qualifications didn’t necessarily mean they had all the answers that led to the right decisions for my children.
“I had to challenge decisions and fight against something if I thought it wasn’t right. I learned a lot about myself during that time and realised I could put those skills to good use. When the nursery school two of my children attended was threatened with closure, I knew I had to do something. A lot of children there were from deprived backgrounds, and it was run by wonderful women who were devoted to the children they cared for.
“They were devastated, as they thought they were going to lose their jobs. Losing Early Years education provision in that area would have blighted the futures of children, as their parents didn’t have many other options locally for preschools. So, I found out when the council committee was sitting, and I went along to my first ever council meeting and stood up and gave them my opinions about the decision and why it was so wrong. The nursery is still open today.”
Eventually, Amanda stood as a Conservative councillor in 2019, winning in the Loughton and Shenley ward by just 37 votes. Driven by a desire to ensure that people’s needs were being met, she worked hard for her ward, was one of the main protagonists in the bid for city status, and was chosen as the Mayor of Milton Keynes for 2022/23.
“It was a surreal moment to find out that we’d got city status just as my year was beginning,” said Amanda. “I remember supporting the idea of going through the process again, and suggesting promoting Milton Keynes as a vibrant community, rather than taking a corporate approach.
“We are a diverse community, and also, what people don’t realise is just how much heritage we have here. There’s Bletchley Park, which is probably what people know best, but we also have one of the first medieval market charters at Stony Stratford, we are one of the last producers of the vellum upon which our country’s laws are written, we have Roman ruins, we’re the home of Aston Martin, we have just celebrated 250 years of the Olney hymn Amazing Grace – there’s so much history.”
Seven other towns in the UK were granted city status in May 2022, part of what was intended as a year-long Jubilee celebration marking Queen Elizabeth II’s 70 years on the throne. That changed, of course, upon the death of Her Majesty on September 8. A celebration of city status, pulled together at just four weeks’ notice, saw King Charles III make his first official visit to Milton Keynes in February.
“We set about bringing together as many organisations from Milton Keynes as possible. There were people from education, faith, leisure, charitable organisations, culture, green innovations and housing associations. We tried to make it reflective of how diverse Milton Keynes is.
“When King Charles arrived, I waited nervously as he made his way up the line, then when we shook hands, he said ‘So you’re the person who knows who everyone in the next room is!’, and I did. So, I had the honour of escorting him around the exhibition and introducing him to all the groups that were there.
“Then I had to make a speech, having practised it like mad over the previous days, and it went without the hitch. Then it hit me, that I’d made a speech to the King! He was very charming, and very funny and I felt that he was im- pressed by what he saw, I think he will come back to MK.”
As her year as Mayor comes to an end, Amanda Marlow is also standing down as a councillor, and is looking for a new challenge, one that she hopes will make good use of all she has learned over the years.
“I don’t know what I am going to do next, but I look at what I have done, my ability to spot issues and raise them, and follow things through. All the skills I had learned previously fed into my life as a public servant, and now I want to use those and all the new skills I’ve learned as a councillor and Mayor and maybe work within the business community to focus on employers’ objectives and what they want to achieve.
“I look back on the things I’ve done and the people I have met, and I feel very humble and incredibly privileged to have been Mayor, but I am so excited to see what the future holds.”
Find out more about Milton Keynes’ Mayor’s office at www.milton-keynes.gov.uk
