Mayor Andy Burnham is facing renewed criticism over a £5.4 million electric vehicle charging contract awarded to the firm Be.EV. the controversy centers on the role of his wife, Marie-France "Frankie" Van Heel,who serves as the company's chief customer officer and a board member .

The £5.4 million Be.EV contract and the TfGM link

Transport for Greater Manchester (TfGM) awarded a seven-year contract to Be .EV to operate and maintain electric vehicle charging units across the city region. According to the report, the deal is worth £5.4 million to date and was granted through a competitive procurement process starting in 2019. While the contract provides the essential infrastructure for the city's green transition, the professional ties between the vendor and the Mayor's office have created a persistent political headache.

Mayor Andy Burnham has maintained that he is insulated from the decision-making process, as the contract was approved by the TfGM Executive Board, a body he does not attend or sit upon. He has formally stepped back from decisions involving Be.EV to avoid conflicts of interest, and he lists his wife's employment in his official register of mayoral interests. However, the proximity of the Mayor's transport policies to his spouse's corporate success continues to draw scrutiny.

From brand consultant to Chief Customer Officer and board member

The professional trajectory of Marie-France "Frankie" Van Heel at Be.EV has accelerated significantly in recent years. After previously working as a brand consultant for entities like Sky and MTV, Ms. Van Heel joined Be.EV as chief marketing officer in July 2023. By July 2024, she had risen to the position of chief customer officer, and by September 2024, the firm announced her appointment to its board of directors.

While Mayor Andy Burnham previously claimed his wife had no direct financial relationship with the company's parent firm, recent filings tell a more complex story. as reported by the Daily Mail, Ms. Van Heel now owns 252 shares in Iduna Infrastructure, the parent company of the unit delivering the Greater Manchester contract. Furthermore, she is a beneficiary of a long-term incentive plan, a common corporate arrangement that promises future shares based on performance targets, effectively giving her a personal stake in the company's growth.

The shadow of the £100 million Clean Air Zone failure

This controversy arrives as Mayor Andy Burnham navigates the fallout from the scrapped Clean Air Zone (CAZ), a project that reportedly wasted an estimated £100 million in public funds. The failure of the CAZ has left the Mayor vulnerable to claims of mismanagement, making the optics of a multi-million pound contract involving a family member particularly sensitive.

The demand for Be.EV's services is driven by a stark urban reality: of the 590,000 residents in Manchester, a low proportion have access to off-street parking, making home charging impossible for many. With 170,000 cars in the city and a looming 2030 government ban on the sale of new combustion engine vehicles, the public charging market is poised for massive expansion. This environment ensures that any firm holding a dominant footprint in Manchester, such as Be.EV, is positioned for significant revenue growth.

The disappearance of Frankie Van Heel's LinkedIn profile

Several questions remain regarding the transparency of the arrangement, most notably the sudden disappearance of Marie-France Van Heel's LinkedIn profile. Ms. Van Heel was previously a prolific user of the platform with thousands of followers, but her page vanished shortly after Mayor Andy Burnham announced his candidacy for the Makerfield by-election and signaled ambitions for national leadership.

It remains unclear why a high-profile chief customer officer would scrub her professional online presence at the height of her career. Additionally, while the report mentions a "long-term incentive plan," the specific financial terms and performance triggers of this plan have not been made public, leaving a gap in the understanding of exactly how much the Mayor's spouse stands to gain from the TfGM contract.