Interview With Mayor Rachel Eden: The Core Duties Of A Mayor
“As Mayor, you do what the town needs. The personality of the mayor and the personality of the town come together.”
As the Mayor of Reading, Cllr Rachel Eden ensures the community she represents is well cared for. Her role as a traditional civic mayor means that Rachel was elected by councillors from the Reading Borough Council and so differs from directly-elected mayors who have political posts and face open elections. Her activities range from chairing full council meetings to working with local charities to lighting the beacon in the Reading Abbey during the Queen’s Platinum Jubilee.
The daughter of a local vicar and an ordained minister, young Rachel Eden was no stranger to taking a more apolitical stance in order to represent a larger community with varying political opinions. She had little idea, however, that this would later translate into her mayoralty. After having graduated from the University of Oxford with a degree in Politics, Philosophy and Economics, she initially wanted to find work in the charity sector. She found difficulties with her aim however and became an accountant and then a school governor where she was encouraged to run for council. This eventually led her to be elected as the mayor, a role she undertook in November 2021.
As a civic mayor, Rachel possesses more of an ambassadorial role and her day to day activities vary widely. She outlines meetings with the board of trustees of charities, visits to local schools and conferences with different organisations. She is particularly passionate about partnering with charities like Parenting Special Children, who work with neurodiverse children. She helps them raise awareness through activities like sponsored walks, auctions and charity birthday celebrations – the 15th of which The Countess of Wessex attended. Another aspect of Reading she is enthused about is the town’s diversity. With around 40% of Reading’s population from an ethnic minority background, Rachel is proud of the different values of the town she represents, and attends Reading Pride and cultural festivals– with the most recent being Diwali. She believes that the different sub-communities within Reading act as “bridges” between Reading and other places in the world and actively help to make Reading a more varied and colourful place.
In our interview, Rachel also explored Reading’s unique relationship with twin town Dusseldorf. The ties between the two date back to the aftermath of the Second World War when the German city was suffering extreme privation due to the bombings. The mayor of Reading at the time, Phoebe Cusden, led a local appeal for help with a particular emphasis on the children in Dusseldorf experiencing poverty and near-starvation in order to overcome persisting wartime hostilities. She raised money and collected food and clothes for them and eventually set up the Reading-Düsseldorf Association, activities that led her to become founder of the post-war twin towns movement. The history of Reading is something that modern mayors like Rachel share with those who visit their Mayor’s Parlour. This includes children and visitors alike.
Another role that the mayor has is educating people about local government and civic life. Rachel outlines how the role of the mayor, ceremonial mayors in particular, fit into the political system of the UK. As a councillor for the Reading Borough Council, Rachel is responsible for local government in the area and does this by chairing monthly council meetings. She compares her role as mayor with the speaker of the House of Commons: they ensure their meetings are effective by determining which members speak and ensure that the amendments they are passionate about are put forward for debate and voted on, but do not control the events. She remarks however that the most difficult part is ensuring the meetings finish on time rather than settling debates.
The role of the mayor may seem distant and even alien to many of you. Indeed, it’s likely that several of you may not even be aware of who your current mayor is. However, it must be acknowledged that the work that they do is invaluable to our communities and is far more important than most realise.
Mayor Rachel Eden, interviewed by Connie Kiew (Junior Politics Editor)