Published: Tuesday, 1st September 2026
Councillor Josie Ratcliffe has been appointed to a new key position of Cabinet member for Transport Strategy and Car Parking at the Borough Council of King’s Lynn and West Norfolk.
This is to ensure dedicated focus and expertise around these priority services for communities.
Cllr Ratcliffe, who has a background in both road haulage and rail, joins the eight existing senior councillors, with a remit to work closely with Norfolk County Council, the highways authority, to ensure joined up thinking around parking and highways planning, investment and delivery.
Cllr Alistair Beales, the Council Leader, said:
“The borough council is not the highways authority but ensuring the right infrastructure and investment is in place to improve West Norfolk’s connectivity to the wider region and enable people to move easily around our borough is absolutely critical to our strategic ambitions as a place for our communities.
“With an eye to the near future, the planning and delivery of highways and transport matters, including day-to-day maintenance of West Norfolk’s extensive road network, will become more localised under the West Norfolk unitary council.
“This new Cabinet post ensures we have a senior elected representative, dedicated to focus on these key areas: to be involved, take ownership of parking issues and ensure joined-up strategic thinking and proactive working with Norfolk County Council and other partners, pushing for positive investment decisions that boost our local economy and improve the lives of our residents in West Norfolk.
“I’d like to congratulate Josie on the appointment and welcome her warmly to the team.”
Cllr Ratcliffe said:
“I am really honoured and humbled to be appointed to Cabinet in this new key position and look forward to representing the council, and supporting our residents and businesses around car parking and transport matters.
“Whether walking, cycling, driving or riding the bus or train, we all know that the right, well-maintained infrastructure and transport services are so important as we go about our daily lives and work. I gladly take up the mantle to focus on transport matters for the good of the borough and leave a positive legacy for the new unitary to take forwards.”
After an early career as a software engineer in Cambridge, Cllr Ratcliffe retrained as an HGV driver and gained extensive experience in road haulage. She was also an NVQ assessor for HGV drivers and achieved the Operator CPC (HGV transport manager) qualification.
More recently, she became a committee member on the Fen Line Users Association, which represents the interests of users of the Fen Line to rail industry management, aiming to ensure that services are maintained and improved. She also served on the borough council’s Transport Strategy Informal Working Group, as a member of the Regeneration & Development Panel.
First elected as a borough councillor in 2019, representing East Downham ward, Cllr Ratcliffe also brings wider understanding of national Parliamentary procedure and lobbying for local areas, having previously worked in the constituency office of Charlotte Cane, MP for Ely and East Cambridgeshire.