South Wales 1 Parish Council 0

Audlem Parish Council is disappointed to announce that Heather Jones has resigned. This is because she and husband, Howard, have moved back to South Wales.

Heather came to Audlem in 1984 and has been a Parish Councillor for the last seven years. Coincidentally, she was also Clerk to the Parish Council for seven years during the 1990s.

Following a year as Vice-Chair, Heather became Chair in 2014, stepping down in May this year. During her term of office there have a number of significant challenges for the Parish Council which have taken up an inordinate amount of her time. These have included:

• the Gladman Appeal and subsequent planning applications by both Anwyl and McCarthy and Stone;
• the Hockenhull Appeal and subsequent planning applications;
• the transfer of the Playing Field complex (which is now nearing completion);
• the recent bid to purchase the field at the top of Green Lane (see today's announcement).

The Neighbourhood Plan

The Gladman 'experience' showed the need for a Neighbourhood Plan. Heather led from the front, galvanising residents and developing it with a team comprising Parish Councillors and residents. Through her enthusiasm the Plan was passed in a referendum within 20 months of its start. The Plan has subsequently proved its worth by enabling proposed planning applications to be either refused or amended.

Parish Council Organisation

In addition to all these, Heather has been the driving force behind the way that the Parish Council operates, moving to a Working Group approach rather than individuals being the lead on specific topics. This has both spread the workload and broadened the knowledge of Councillors, thereby making the Council more efficient.

Over the last few months Heather has spent many hours reviewing the Council's policies and recommending changes to them where appropriate.

To put it simply, Heather will be sorely missed. We hope that she and Howard enjoy their new phase of life back in South Wales and wish them well for the future.

This now creates a vacancy on the Parish Council.

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