First day as the new Mayor for the North East for Kim McGuinness
The Labour candidate won the North East Mayoral election last week
The first ever North East Mayor - Labour's Kim McGuiness - starts her new role in the region today.
She will speak for the two million people currently living in Northumberland, Tyne and Wear and County Durham
The new mayor who beat her closest rival - Independent Jamie Driscoll last week - is promising to improve bus travel and tackle child poverty.
"We are in this for the long haul and the things we do straight away are going to be really important," Kim said.
"We want to be making an impact straight away but this is going to be a really long journey for us in this region. Taking power back from London and making more of our decisions for ourselves".