John Sanderson, Head of Planning at Barnsley MBC:

I knew Rachel as a colleague at Barnsley Council for 7 years and it is an honour to be asked to speak in celebration of her life and achievements at work.

Rachel was much admired and respected by her colleagues for her sincerity, intellect, honesty and her commitment to the environment, but above all, to the people around her.

She was a very moral person with strong ethical principles.  She had potent personal views and deeply held values.

Yet she was also able to be flexible and to show great understanding of other people’s attitudes and views.  It is no surprise then that she was a champion of partnerships both in the small scale, in terms of setting up local co-operatives, to the very large scale, in setting up multi million pound projects between Councils and companies.

In all her work, she showed enormous commitment to people and the natural world.

Also, she always sought challenge in her work, and to change things for the better. She taught English in Ethiopia.  She worked as an adviser in the Treasury on models of the world economy.

During her time as a freelance writer, her book on “Poverty and Power” - the case for a Political Approach to Third World Development, was published.  She took up the challenge of setting up small co-operatives in London and later continued such work for the GLC, and Greater London Enterprise.  Her pioneering work on managing change and partnership at Kirklees led to the development of the Kirklees McAlpine Stadium and more recently to the Kingsgate Shopping Development in Huddersfield.

On joining us in Barnsley, Rachel was a key officer in helping to bring about creative and constructive changes in the organisation of the Council, changing the way we work with the private sector and again forming partnership arrangements.  Her contribution was crucial to our work with the community in the Regeneration Forum and to the setting up of the Barnsley Town Centre Partnership.

Rachel’s commitment to all her work was really about the needs of people, their deep desire for a better life and for all that is meant by the words “society” and “community”.

Rachel will be sorely missed but her contribution will live on.  A contribution which enhanced our working culture, especially in terms of co-operation and collaboration, and the way that we relate to the people of Barnsley, the way we relate to each other, and share responsibility.

These are all legacies left to us by Rachel.  We will cherish them by continuing to work in this manner.

Finally, I feel I speak for all her working colleagues when I say that Rachel will be sorely missed.  She was a fine person, colleague and friend, and we will miss her deeply.