Jane Scott, Baroness Scott of Bybrook

Jane Scott, Baroness Scott of Bybrook, in 2015
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Jane Antoinette Scott, Baroness Scott of Bybrook OBE (born June 1947[1][2][3]) is a British Conservative politician, local government leader and member of the House of Lords. She has been leader of the Wiltshire Council unitary authority since June 2009 and before that of its predecessor, the former Wiltshire County Council, between 2003 and 2009.

Early life

Scott was educated at the Convent of Jesus and Mary High School in Harlesden, Brent, London, and then took a diploma in dairying at the Lancashire College of Agriculture, later renamed as Myerscough College.[4]

Career

After college, Scott worked in the dairy industry, on farms and also in public relations work, marketing and lecturing.[5] She moved to Wiltshire in the 1990s and in 1995 was elected to North Wiltshire District Council. Two years later, she was elected to Wiltshire County Council, and in 2001 became chairman of its Education Committee,[5] then cabinet member for children, education and libraries, and finally Leader in 2003.[2][6] In the county council, she represented the Kington division,[7] and in the district council Kington St Michael.[8]

When chosen to lead Wiltshire County Council in 2003, Scott said: "Being elected leader of the council is a great honour and I intend to devote all of my time and energies to my new responsibilities."[2] For some years, she was a member of the Local Government Association's General Assembly[9] and for a time her name was on the Conservative Party 'A' List of parliamentary candidates.[10] As leader of the county council, from 2007 she successfully argued for a unitary authority for Wiltshire, which would mean the demise of the county's four existing District Councils, facing determined opposition from leading Conservatives, including Eric Pickles and Michael Ancram.[4]

In 2009, in the first elections to a new Wiltshire Council, the unitary authority created by merging the county and its districts, she was elected for a new division called "By Brook".[11] This includes the parishes of Biddestone (with Slaughterford), Castle Combe, Hullavington, Grittleton, Nettleton, North Wraxall, and Yatton Keynell.[12] The Conservatives won 62 of the 98 seats available, and a few days later Scott was elected as the first Leader of the new unitary authority.[13]

Scott was appointed OBE in the 2010 New Year Honours for services to local government.[14] On 27 August 2015 it was announced that on the nomination of David Cameron she was to be created a life peer, giving her a seat in the House of Lords.[15] She was created Baroness Scott of Bybrook, of Upper Wraxall in the County of Wiltshire, on the afternoon of 8 October.[16]

She is a member of the National Youth Agency and the Wiltshire and Swindon Learning Skills Council.[6] chair of the Wiltshire Strategic Board,[17] and a Local Education Authority Inspector for Ofsted.[8]

Private life

In 1986 Scott married Ronald J. Scott, an executive of the International Monetary Fund.[18] They had three children, and until 2013 lived near Chippenham on a livestock farm.[6] After a severe fall from a horse in the 1980s, she took up breeding Caspian horses,[19] and in 1999 her occupation was "horse stud owner". She and her daughter Fleur, a vet, have been connected with the Caspian Breed Society.[20]

See also

References

  1. ↑ Wiltshire Times, 2 May 2007
  2. 1 2 3 PR 1220 Wiltshire County Council elects a new leader (Tuesday 15 July 2003) at wiltshire.gov.uk
  3. ↑ Companies House
  4. 1 2 Peter Hetherington, Leader of Wiltshire Council in The Guardian dated 28 May 2013, online at the guardian.com, accessed 16 November 2014.
  5. 1 2 Wiltshire County Council, Clerk's Department page at nationalarchives.gov.uk
  6. 1 2 3 Mrs Jane Scott at northwilts-communityweb.com
  7. ↑ Kington Electoral Division Mrs Jane Scott Leader of the Council and Conservative Group Leader at wiltshire.gov.uk
  8. 1 2 Cllr Jane Scott at northwiltsconservatives.com
  9. ↑ REPRESENTATION ON THE LOCAL GOVERNMENT ASSOCIATION (LGA) AND OTHER OUTSIDE BODIES AND APPOINTMENT OF JOINT COMMITTEES
  10. ↑ Who is on the A-list? at conservativehome web site
  11. ↑ For the division of By Brook Details for 2009 election
  12. ↑ Order map no. 1 of Wiltshire Boundary Review 2008 at Electoral Commission website
  13. ↑ The Municipal year book and public services directory, volume 2 (Municipal Journal, 2010), p. 1346
  14. ↑ "No. 59282". The London Gazette (Supplement). 31 December 2009. p. 12.
  15. ↑ "Dissolution Peerages 2015". Gov.uk. Retrieved 27 August 2015.
  16. ↑ "notice 2415685". The London Gazette.
  17. ↑ Wiltshire launches new community safety and drugs strategy (29 June 2005)
  18. ↑ Councillors pay increase defended dated 3 February 2014 in Valley News online
  19. ↑ History & Fleur Scott at caspian-stud.webnode.se, accessed 26 July 2016
  20. ↑ Jane Antoinette Scott at checkcompany.co.uk, accessed 26 July 2016

Civic offices
Preceded by
New council		 Leader of Wiltshire Council
June 2009 – 		Succeeded by
Incumbent
Preceded by
Peter Chalke		 Leader of Wiltshire County Council
2003 – June 2009 		Succeeded by
Council defunct
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