Sue Essex (born 29 August 1945 in

Cromford Cromford is a village and civil parish in Derbyshire, England, in the valley of the River Derwent between Wirksworth and Matlock. It is north of Derby, south of Matlock and south of Matlock Bath. It is first mentioned in the 11th-century Do ...

Derbyshire Derbyshire ( ) is a ceremonial county in the East Midlands, England. It includes much of the Peak District National Park, the southern end of the Pennine range of hills and part of the National Forest. It borders Greater Manchester to the nor ...

) is a

Welsh Welsh may refer to: Related to Wales * Welsh, referring or related to Wales * Welsh language, a Brittonic Celtic language spoken in Wales * Welsh people People * Welsh (surname) * Sometimes used as a synonym for the ancient Britons (Celtic peop ...

Labour Labour or labor may refer to: * Childbirth, the delivery of a baby * Labour (human activity), or work ** Manual labour, physical work ** Wage labour, a socioeconomic relationship between a worker and an employer ** Organized labour and the labour ...

politician who was the

Member of the National Assembly for Wales A Member of the Senedd (MS; plural: ''MSs''; cy, Aelodau o'r Senedd; , plural:) (AS)., group=la is a representative elected to the Senedd (Welsh Parliament; ). There are sixty members, with forty members chosen to represent individual Senedd ...

for Cardiff North from 1999 to 2007. She was the Welsh Assembly Government Minister for Finance, Local Government and Public Services in the Second Assembly 2003-07 and retired at the 2007 election. Brought up in

Tottenham Tottenham () is a town in North London, England, within the London Borough of Haringey. It is located in the ceremonial county of Greater London. Tottenham is centred north-northeast of Charing Cross, bordering Edmonton to the north, Waltham ...

, she moved to

South Wales South Wales ( cy, De Cymru) is a loosely defined region of Wales bordered by England to the east and mid Wales to the north. Generally considered to include the historic counties of Glamorgan and Monmouthshire, south Wales extends westwards ...

in 1971. A college lecturer by profession, Essex was a member of

Cardiff City Council Cardiff City Council was the local government district authority that administered the city of Cardiff, capital of Wales, from 1974 until 1996. The district council replaced the pre-1974 county borough council. It was succeeded in 1996 by Car ...

and instrumental in pushing a green agenda in the city.Alan Hooper; John Punter (Eds.)
Capital Cardiff 1975–2020: Regeneration, Competitiveness and the Urban Environment
', pp. 35–36. University of Wales Press (2006), . She became leader of the city council from 1994 to 1996. In 1995 she narrowly lost the contest to be Labour leader of the new unitary authority of the County Council of the City and County of Cardiff. Essex was elected

Assembly Member for Cardiff North in the

National Assembly for Wales The Senedd (; ), officially known as the Welsh Parliament in English language, English and () in Welsh language, Welsh, is the Devolution in the United Kingdom, devolved, unicameral legislature of Wales. A democratically elected body, it makes ...

's inaugural elections in 1999 (First Assembly), and appointed Minister for Environment, Transport and Planning in 2000. She became the Minister for Finance, Local Government and Public Services following the 2003 election. She announced on 19 August 2005 that she would stand down at the

2007 National Assembly for Wales election The 2007 National Assembly for Wales election was held on Thursday 3 May 2007 to elect members to the Senedd, National Assembly for Wales. It was the third general election. On the same day local elections in England and Scotland, as well as the ...

.BBC NEWS , Wales , Essex to stand down at elections
/ref> Although supporting Labour candidate

Sophie Howe Sophie Howe (born c. 1977) is the Future Generations Commissioner for Wales, appointed in 2016. She had previously been a local councillor and worked as a special political advisor and deputy police and crime commissioner. Career Howe was el ...

, she was succeeded by

Conservative Conservatism is a cultural, social, and political philosophy that seeks to promote and to preserve traditional institutions, practices, and values. The central tenets of conservatism may vary in relation to the culture and civilization i ...

Jonathan Morgan.

References

Profile on BBC Website September 1999

Offices held

1945 births Living people Councillors in Cardiff Welsh Labour members of the Senedd Wales AMs 1999–2003 Wales AMs 2003–2007 People from Tottenham Members of the Welsh Assembly Government Female members of the Senedd Ministers for Finance of Wales Female finance ministers 20th-century British women politicians Women members of the Welsh Assembly Government People from Cromford Women councillors in Wales {{Wales-AM-stub