'We've been absolutely left out...we have the lowest level of investment in highways and transport'

EAST MIDLANDS MAYOR SAYS REGION HAS LOST OUT TO OTHERS BUT ADDS THAT IT IS HER JOB TO BRING MORE MONEY IN AND INVEST IT IN THE RIGHT PLACES

- By JOSEPH CONNOLLY Local Democracy Reporter

CLAIRE Ward cares about the East Midlands. But don't take it from her.

"She's amazing at what she does," says an employee of the East Midlands Combined Authority (EMCCA), which she leads. "She's doing a great job."

I'm talking to him as we wait for Ms Ward, in order to start a walk with her between Nottingham's Victoria Embankment and Attenborough Nature Reserve.

It is the latest section she is completing of the 150-mile route EMCCA calls "The Loop", linking Nottinghamshire and Derbyshire.

Ms Ward might be the face of EMCCA, but her work in promoting the region is underpinned by more than 300 staff behind the scenes across sectors such as housing, green energy and transport.

It was one of those very employees - a graduate in the mayor's office - that mapped out this route, an effective walking and cycling "ring road" through the two counties and cities that make up the mayoral region.

The mayor started in Buxton and is now more than 100 miles into her attempt at walking the entire thing, meeting with businesses and those in the locality on the way to discuss how The Loop and EMCCA can improve their fortunes as East Midlanders.

The region has been "forgotten", agrees the mayor, when I ask her about comments an EMCCA member made in a meeting recently, about the fact that the recently announced Northern Powerhouse Rail plans exclude anywhere south of Sheffield.