WOMEN are leading the way at the top of Barrow Borough Council.

Sam Plum has been the chief executive of Barrow Borough Council for the last two years, is one of a number of women in important positions at an authority where two of its directors are female alongside its head of legal and governance.

This is in addition to council leader Ann Thomson and leader of the opposition Hazel Edwards.

"Ann talks about how we lead with love and compassion and kindness and a big message during Covid has been about how we wrap our arms around our residents,” says Sam.

“There are male chief execs who are leading in a similar way and so it’s not gender-based. But I do wonder sometimes if it’s because of the bias towards female leadership we’ve got.”

Originally from Pendle, in Lancashire, Sam has worked in local government for over 25 years. She began her career in environmental and countryside management before moving into work with Coventry City Council around how it could develop partnership working on issues such as recycling, biodiversity loss and energy efficiency.

For Sam Plum all of the functions of local government boil down to one thing; making people’s lives better.

Immediately before moving to Barrow, Sam was director of communities at Rossendale Borough Council.

“I had ideas of what I thought local government needed to do and I couldn’t always get my own way so I ended up moving up so I had more influence and opportunity to do the things I wanted to do,” she says.

“The public sector are servants of the public and we’re here to ensure our residents get the best life chances they can have.

“We’re the only organisation in the public sector that’s got a democratic mandate to be there for the borough and really champion it and make sure its people and businesses get the best for themselves.

“A lot of my role is about building relationships and championing all the good things about Barrow but being really cognisant of the problems we’ve got in the area.”

She says chief among these are issues such as health inequality, deprivation and poverty.

“It’s part of my role to galvanise the right partners to work on some of those issues,” she says.

“It’s very much a kind of convening and place-shaping role and being clear about the big vision for the area, what it can achieve and where it wants to go, and how we create momentum around those agendas.”

As well as acting as a bridge between the council members and its salaried staff to implement changes, she says part of her role is making sure the NHS, Cumbria County Council and the police - whose spend outstrips the council’s in the borough - are working with it towards a common goal.

At the same time Barrow Borough, alongside South Lakeland District and Lancaster City councils, is waiting to see if it will even exist at all by the end of 2023.

Last year the trio submitted their full business case to the Government for forming a new unitary authority around Morecambe Bay.

Sam says even if the unitary vision is rejected the councils will continue to push for a growth deal around Morecambe Bay, similar to the Borderlands project in the north of the county.

“I don’t see why we shouldn’t be arguing for an economic growth deal in the same way whatever happens with local government reorganisation,” she says.