Susan Smith
Labour Party
West Middleton Ward
Firstly, I would like to thank you for taking the trouble to read my election pitch on Rochdale Online.
My name is Sue Smith and I’m standing as your Labour candidate in West Middleton ward in the local election on May 5th.
I live locally in the heart of the ward with my husband Terry and I have spent many years working in the voluntary and community sector in Middleton, especially on Langley.
I currently work for Status4U which is an organisation that works with young people helping to provide training and better job opportunities to give those young people a good start in their adult life.
I am also heavily involved with Langley Community Leisure Garden, a project designed to offer facilities to all local residents to get involved in gardening and to offer a quiet area for older people to enjoy.
I work closely with both our community centres in the ward at Demesne and Burnside and I’m proud that Labour has funded our community centres so that not one single community centre in the whole borough has closed.
Many roads on Langley have a poor road surface with pot holes. Your Labour team has made sure the worst of these are put into Labour’s new £1 million programme to improve Highways and recently Langdale Drive was resurfaced as part of this programme. Bowness Road and Windermere Road are to be tackled shortly.
I am a strong defender of our green spaces and I am proud of our local parks at Truffet Park and Bowlee Country Park. I will resist all attempts to turn our green fields into big housing developments.
Whilst we’re all disappointed that recently some planning decisions on green field sites have not gone our way, please remember that apart from local residents, the only political people from West Middleton that spoke against the developments were our Labour councillors Neil Emmott and Phil Burke. UKIP has tried to jump on the bandwagon since the decisions went against us but I would ask them a simple question: Where were you when local residents and Labour councillors were fighting against these plans?
If elected on 5 May, my first priority will be to look after the interests of all the people of West Middleton ward: Langley, Hebers, Bowlee, Birch, Silver Birch, Wood St/Barleyfield and Durnford St/Mellalieu St areas.
Once more, many thanks for reading my pitch and I hope I can count on your vote on 5 May.
If you have any problems or issues you wish to raise with me then please feel free to call me on 07767 820987.
