The Person

Councillor Joyce Sanders, member for Belper in Amber Valley, became the 32nd Chair of Derbyshire County Council on 25 April 2007.

Her natural inclination is to roll up her sleeves and get involved, so Joyce aims to spend her two years in office getting out and about and meeting as many people as possible.

As well as all the official visits her role inevitably brings, she has set herself a personal challenge before her term ends - to visit every one of the county council’s homes for older people and its day centres, and as many as possible of its 431 schools.

“These are very important services affecting thousands of local families and I’d like to show just how much the council appreciates them by taking the time to visit and see first hand some of the things they’re doing.”

Born in August 1946, Joyce’s first political memories are, as a five-year-old, stuffing leaflets into envelopes for the local Labour Party candidate George Brown. He later became a minister in Harold Wilson’s government.

She grew up in Belper and met her husband, Randall, when they both worked for local firm Glow-worm and together helped set up ASTMS, the Association of Scientific, Technical and Managerial Staffs. They later went on to have two sons, Robert and Andrew, and now have two grandchildren.

Her first public role was at the age of 16 when, as Joyce Murfin, she became a school governor on Belper Joint Primary schools board. She went on to became a governor of her old school Long Row Primary, and is still a governor on Belper School.

She later spent 10 years on Belper Town Council, serving as Mayor from 1995 – 1996, followed three years later as Major of Amber Valley Borough Council during her four years there as a councillor.

Joyce was first elected to Derbyshire County Council in 1997, but it was not until 2004 that she joined the council’s cabinet. There, among other achievements, she helped steer the introduction of the authority’s website and the council’s call centre, Call Derbyshire, both of which have improved the organisation’s communication with the public.

A year later she took on the new role of Cabinet member for Community Safety, which co-ordinates a number of services aimed at helping people feel more secure and safe in their every day lives.

Councillor Sanders is supported in her role by the Vice-chair of the council, Councillor Janet Hill from Dronfield North.

It is the first time the county council has had women in both of these positions at once, something Joyce thinks is quite significant as 2007 marked the centenary of women having the right to stand for county council election.

Read the Chair's acceptance speech.