Lydia Simmons

Lydia Emelda Simmons is a Labour Party local politician in Slough, who had the distinction of being the first black, woman Mayor in England.

She served as a Councillor on Slough Borough Council 1979-1994 and from 1999 until 2007. She was the longest serving member of the Council, by the end of her tenure in 2007.

In 1983-1984 Lydia Simmons was Deputy Mayor of Slough. In 1984-1985 she served as Mayor (see List of Mayors of Slough). From 1985-1994 she was chair of the council committee responsible for housing.

After the introduction of cabinet government, in place of the traditional committee based administration, she was a cabinet commissioner 1999-2004 (Social Exclusion 1999-2002 and Neighbourhood Services 2002-2004). Simmons became shadow commissioner for Housing, after Labour went into opposition in 2004.

She was (in 2006) a member of the Board of People 1st Slough, the body which from January 2006 ran public housing in Slough as an arms length management organisation (ALMO).

Disputed 2007 election

At the Slough Council election, 2007 Simmons was the Labour candidate in Central Ward. She was unexpectedly defeated by the Conservative candidate, Eshaq Khan, in circumstances which led to to an election petition being presented challenging the result. An election commissioner, on 18 March 2008, ruled the election void because of registration and postal vote fraud.

It was only when Labour party activists, surprised by the Conservative victory in an election which had otherwise been a success for Labour, pressed for an investigation that the fraud was discovered, the hearing was told.

Commissioner Mr Richard Mawry QC said: "The only reasons they came to light at all were the incompetence of the fraudsters and the blatant nature of the frauds.

Simmons did not contest the by-election caused by the court decision.

External links

* [http://www.sopse.org.uk/ixbin/hixclient.exe?a=query&p=slough&f=generic_theme.htm&_IXFIRST_=1&_IXMAXHITS_=1&%3Dtheme_record_id=sl-sl-lydiasimmons photograph and short biography - recovered 19 March 2008]
* [http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/berkshire/7302809.stm report of 2008 electoral petition hearing - recovered 19 March 2008]
* [http://www.slough.info/law/law41/law41.html text of the judgment in the case of Simmons v Khan]