Character
Jane Rutter,
Mayor of Winchester
Words: Sue Hughes Pictures: Courtesy of Jane Rutter
RIGHT: Jane Rutter
Fired up by two general elections in 1974 and coming from a background of local authority and family Liberal political involvement, Winchester’ s latest Mayor’ s past was somewhat predetermined. Jane Rutter’ s baptism was of water, however, not fire.
That’ s because when the landlocked county of Rutland became absorbed into part of Leicester, Jane campaigned for artificial lake Rutland Water to be called just that, rather than Empingham Reservoir – it’ s Europe’ s largest man-made lake and has since been voted a top tourist attraction. Jane collected 5,000 signatures before heading off to the University of Canterbury to study Economics with Politics.
At 24 she started working for the Liberal Party in Yorkshire as a regional agent organising conferences, training and supporting constituency parties. The SDP-Liberal Alliance made the 1983 general election a huge challenge for local parties who had to‘ share’ half the seats with their partner party. Early in 1987 she met Duncan, a trainee solicitor who was to become her husband, then treasurer of the Leeds West Liberal Democrat party.
“ After the 1987 election I felt it was time to get a proper job,” said Jane, the 817th Mayor of Winchester and Liberal Democrat councillor for The Worthys.
She worked in public relations for a couple of years, but was then very much a stay at home mum around bringing up the couple’ s three children, Katy, Matthew and Rosie( who shares her older sister’ s birth date). Matthew surprised her by flying in from San Francisco for Mayor-making.
“ I enjoyed my time with the children when young and I think it makes a difference to family life. There are many more pressures on young families these days, and it is hard to find a balance.” Jane still worked around the children, taking jobs ranging from childminder to part time administrative work from home. Duncan’ s work brought the family to Winchester in 1995 and Jane became very involved in the local community in Kings Worthy and then Headbourne Worthy, through the church, schools, groups, setting up two local toddler groups and, especially, music.
Jane, a member of the Waynflete Singers, has chosen a diverse range of charities to support, two national and three local: Combat Stress, Winchester Youth Counselling, Music For All, Street Reach and Home Start.
8 Resident www. residentmagazine. co. uk