About Sheila
Sheila has been a County Councillor for 12 years, after first being elected in 1997; previous to this she was a full-time carer, but her role still doesn’t stop her enjoying time with her two daughters and four grandchildren, including a brand new grand-daughter! She represents Blyth & Harworth which is one of the furthest constituencies from County Hall.
Sheila is currently the Vice-Chair of the Appeals and Pensions Committees, and previously held the post of Chief Whip.
She is a school governor at Langold Dyscarr and also at SerlbyPark. She is also the Chair of the Safer Neighbourhoods Committees at Carlton-in-Lindrick, Costhorpe, Langold, Oldcotes & Bircotes, and also attends the committees at Harworth & Bircotes.
She also attends local tenants & residents groups, and if you would like her to come along, then please get in touch with her (details are to the left & below).
Sheila is also a member of the management board for the Langold Centre and acts as an observer to the Bassetlaw Community & Voluntary Service.
Latest News
Spring 2011
At the Nottinghamshire
County Council Budget Meeting on 24th February 2011 I joined my Labour
colleagues in voting against the Budget proposals.
While we welcomed the extra
spending being made by the County Council on child protection and services for
vulnerable adults, we did not agree with the proposals to reduce funding to
other areas such as the Libraries service, Supporting People programme and
grant aid to voluntary groups.
We asked the majority group
to consider a more detailed consultation with the public and partner
organisations in order to allow a longer term approach to making efficiencies,
with a view to many possibly not being needed as the economic situation
improved.
However, our proposals were
not accepted, and the Budget was eventually passed with a majority of five
votes.
27th October 2010
"At the Council Meeting on 21st October, along with my colleagues in the Labour group, I voted against the proposals being made by the County Council to make spending cuts of £150m over the next four years.
The Labour group made it completely clear that we welcome the extra spending in Children’s and Adult’s services but we also stated that we felt it inappropriate to withdraw funding from other vital areas such as Surestart and Supporting People, and that the Council was moving too fast with its cuts and not taking full cognisance of the impact on the most vulnerable.
The Labour group presented a longer-term alternative which would’ve seen the £50m from reserves currently earmarked for redundancies instead being reinvested into vital services, and enabling the County Council to retain skilled staff who wished to remain, while allowing others to leave through natural staff turnover.
We believe that our longer-term approach would minimise the impact on external partners, minimise the need for redundancy payments, retain valuable staff and achieve the necessary financial goals.
Our proposals were, however, dismissed, and the administration instead voted to implement their original plans to make immediate service cuts."
Latest news from Blyth & Harworth from Sheila
January 2010
Serlby Park School
As you’ll have seen from the local press, I’m happy beyond words that we managed to convince the County Council to take Serlby Park School off a list of proposed closures.
Working together with the children of Serlby Park School and everyone involved with the campaign was an absolute pleasure, and it reminds us how strong a united local voice can be.
I will continue to press for a confirmation of the £7.5m investment in Serlby Park school which was announced by the previous administration at the County Council, and will keep you updated when I get some more news.
Road humps
After presenting the petition to get the road humps removed on Grosvenor Road, I was disappointed to learn that the road improvements work order had already been processed before the petition was handed in.
However, this doesn’t mean that the Council won’t look at the removal of the humps in the future, unfortunately it means that we’re just going to have to wait a little bit longer.
Street lights
Everyone has been inconvenienced by the lack of street lights in Langold over the past few weeks, and I am pushing hard to get this problem resolved.
Youth bus
I am taking part in a consultation with young people in the area with a view to introducing a new youth bus service. With us all meeting together, I want to make sure that the bus suits the young people and their needs.
A1 roundabout removals
The roundabouts on the A1 have finally been removed, so we can all breathe a sigh of relief. This will improve the transport links out of Blyth and stop all the traffic from clogging up the roads when it gets busy. I’m really grateful for all the support with this campaign and it’s been a pleasure working with everyone to get the changes we wanted.
Youth Shelter proposals
I’m currently helping to look at designs for a youth shelter in Langold and would be happy to receive any input.
This will be part of an overall scheme to keep our kids away from drinking alcohol, by providing regular alcohol-free discos, and a safe environment where they can have fun without fear of unwanted peer pressure to get involved with things that are harmful or anti-social.
Councillor's Divisional Fund
The Electoral Division Initiative that we introduced a few years ago is now called the Councillor's Divisional Fund. However, the principle remains the same:
Each councillor receives £10,000 to help fund local organisations, causes, individuals and schemes, who would not normally have access to financial support for their smaller project
Please contact Sheila if you would like to apply for some CDF funding. Here are just a few examples of the useful funding which was provided by Sheila in 2009/2010:
