The candidates for the upcoming Wilmslow Town Council election, representing Wilmslow West Ward, have been announced.
Residents in Wilmslow will have the choice of nine candidates to fill five seats when they go to the polls on on Thursday, 4th May.
The candidates standing are:
- Abdullah Faruq - Local Conservatives
- Mark Goldsmith * - Residents of Wilmslow
- Michael Gorman - Residents of Wilmslow
- Tim Higgins - Residents of Wilmslow
- Angela McPake * - Local Conservatives
- Julie Dawn Potts * - Local Conservatives
- Hannan Sarwar * - Local Conservatives
- Ed Sleath - Residents of Wilmslow
- Toby Tritschler - Residents of Wilmslow
I will publish brief interviews with each of the candidates, in the order in which I receive a response to my request. Use the tags below to locate the other candidate interviews published to date.
Please tell me about yourself - occupation, where you live, interests, family?
I live in The Circuit off Chapel Lane. I work as a Senior Lecturer in Sport Business Management in Manchester Metropolitan University (MMU).
My interests lie in working with local community, small business enterprise growth and sport. I have always been involved with the sport industry for my occupation and academic studies.
I am married with one son. My wife is also an academic by profession. My son is 15 years old, currently studying in Wilmslow High School and previously went to Gorsey Bank Primary School for his primary education.
How long you have lived in there?
I have lived in Wilmslow since 2012, at first in Gravel Lane and then, in 2017, I moved to my own house at The Circuit.
Are you a member of any local groups or societies?
I am the elected Club Secretary of the Wilmslow Town Football Club (FA Chartered Standard Grass root Football Club). I have been fulfilling this role since 2016 and now I am on my second term been elected for this role.
Why have you decided to stand for election as a town councillor?
I love working with the local community and believe that I can make a difference in the Wilmslow area through my academic expertise and experience. I want to support the local community, especially, the small businesses in my ward to become more sustainable and foster growth. I strongly believe my academic expertise and experience in small business growth and carbon literacy can help small business enterprises to manage the challenges of sustainability and generate further growth in their business.
I am very passionate about sport especially that at grass root level. If elected, I want to work closely with the local community to create more opportunities for our children and youth to take part in variety of sport. My vision is to make sport activities more inclusive and accessible and by so doing, I aim to support their mental and physical well-being.
I want to work with all the residents in my ward and my fellow team to further develop Wilmslow as one of the green and beautiful towns in Cheshire to live, visit and trade on. I believe my expertise and experience can complement this vision.
What do you consider to be the important issues facing Wilmslow?
I believe the implementation of the Wilmslow Neighbourhood Plan needs to be considered as priority. A successful implementation of the plan requires working closely with the Wilmslow Community.
In comparison to other local towns, our Wilmslow Town has been more successful in mitigating the negative effects of the pandemic. Given this context, I think we need to work closely with our local business community and help them grab opportunity from the changing post pandemic business landscape, adapt more sustainable business practices, and deliver a more enjoyable retailing and visiting experience.
As a resident of the Circuit, I am aware of the issues experienced by my surrounding neighbours. To exemplify one, insufficient parking space force residents to park on street all day. Often residents struggle to find parking in front of their own homes. If elected, I want to work closely with the team to develop and implement a sensible plan to address this issue.
I want to also work in restoring the nationally recognised peatlands enabling our future generations learn about our local history of the town. I want to also work closely with the team and community to further foster the beautiful greenery of our Lindow Moss making it habitual for our wildlife and adorable by the local community.
What do you hope to achieve and how in the next 4 years?
By working closely with the community, I hope to support the implementation of the Wilmslow Neighbourhood plan, address sustainable growth of our local small businesses and overall, make our town a more vibrant place to live and to trade in.
As a team we have set out clear and focused plans, which we believe will create a positive impact on the living standard of Wilmslow through efficient use of resources. I aim to work with my fellow team and the community to implement the plans proposed in our manifesto. I acknowledge at times it will be challenging to implement the plans due to changing context, however, I will work closely with my team and community and address those challenges as a united force.
What experience and personal qualities will you bring to the role?
I have gained more than 15 years of experience in working in the higher education academy (HEA) and in the Sport Business Industry. My experience in these sectors has made me a team player, where I had to listen to various opinions from multiple stakeholders and address challenges through delivering productive solutions using limited resources. My work has exposed me to diverse groups of people ranging from different ethnicity, age group and lifestyle, enabling me to understand different contexts of lives and perspectives. I believe my diverse understanding of people and their culture has always inspired me to value diversity and inclusivity. This outlook makes me an ideal candidate who would bring forward all the differences and provide a solution that is acceptable to all as a "Community".
My work with the Wilmslow Town Football Club has enabled me to work closely with my executive committee members, managers, and parents to ensure the growth of the club and address the demand for community grassroot football in Wilmslow. With a view to integrate parents' feedback and to make grassroot football more inclusive, I have worked closely with my team to introduce girls' football in our club across multiple age groups. At present, my club houses the highest number of girls' football teams across multiple age groups in Wilmslow taking part in the local Cheshire leagues. I am proud to say that I am leading a working committee to analyse the potential introduction of walking football for our able and interested elderly in Wilmslow through my club. This project will provide an excellent opportunity for recreation, social interaction, and physical and mental wellbeing for our elderlies in the community.
My industry experience has made me very versatile in terms of adapting to challenging situations and developing creative, and effective solutions. I plan to bring this experience and expertise of mine to creatively address issues related to the local community and Wilmslow Town and to develop and deliver solutions meant for the "Community".
My role as an academic and sport business consultant has enabled me to gain experience in developing business plan, to work within tight deadlines and to make optimum use of limited resources. I am confident that if elected, these experience and skill sets of mine will significantly contribute to the work undertaken in Wilmslow Town Council as Councillor.
Why should Wilmslow West ward residents vote for you?
I would like to request the voters in Wilmslow West Ward to think of me as one of their own. I have lived in this area for the past 11 years and just like them, I have experienced the issues that make our lives as challenging at times. I am confident that together we can alleviate these challenges. Therefore, I would urge the residents of Wilmslow West Ward to have confidence in me and provide me with an opportunity to represent you all and work for you all as a Councillor of this beautiful ward.
*current councillor.
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