Tributes paid to 'incredible champion for town' and first female mayor

KATE ALLSOP WAS A TRAILBLAZER

- By GEORGE PALMER-SOADY

MANSFIELD’S town’s first female mayor and long-serving county councillor has died following a long illness.

Kate Allsop first entered local politics as a Conservative councillor for the Oakham ward on Mansfield District Council in 1991.

Described as “an incredible champion for our town,” she would go on to represent the Berry Hill ward and then a Nottinghamshire county councillor in 2001.

In 2015, Ms Allsop became the Mayor of Mansfield - the first woman to do so. She later joined the Mansfield Independents and remained as the town’s mayor until 2019.