Following the resignation of Councillor Lorraine Sherwood Meakin of the YRA Group on Yarm Town Council, a by-election to fill the vacancy has been called for Thursday 19th January 2017.
There are 11 seats on Yarm Town Council, of which in, the May 2015 Council elections, six were elected for the YRA Group, five were elected from Yarm Independent Association. Since last year, Councillor Sandra McLeavy, formerly a member of the YRA Group, has been an Independent.
There are three candidates standing (in alphabetical order):
Carole JONES
(Yarm Independent Association)
Brian NEWCOMBE
(Independent)
Barbara WEGG
(YRA Group)
All the quotes published below are taken from one hundred word biographies provided by each candidate.
Carole JONES
Yarm Independent Association
Retired Teacher and community volunteer Carole Jones (pictured picking up litter from one of the many planters on Yarm High Street) is standing for Yarm Independent Association.
Carole has lived in Yarm for 20 years, and following her retirement has been able to devote herself “to many Yarm centric activities including: Yarm Art Society; Yarm Garden Club; Yarm Ladies Cycling Group”. As a keen cyclist she volunteers her time to many Stockton cycling initiatives.
Carole said “My love of environmental things has led to clean ups in our town. I’ve enjoyed planting an orchard for Snaiths field and planting trees and flowers with local school children.” Carole also successfully campaigned and protested to save Snaith’s Field and stop the development of a boules pitch on one of central Yarm’s only public open spaces.
“I care about this town and under the previous administration of the Council, I served as Ratepayers Representative.”
Carole wants to “end the petty squabbles, and seek positive change”.
Brian NEWCOMBE
Independent
Construction Worker Brian Newcombe (pictured in front of the safety barriers he successfully campaigned for near the children’s play area on Willey Flatts Lane) is standing as an independent.
Brian, who attended Yarm Infant School, Spitalfields Junior School and then Egglescliffe Comprehensive School, has lived in Yarm for well over fifty years.
Over the past few years Brian has attended most Yarm Town Council meetings and finds himself and Yarm “let down by petty squabbling”.
Brian is running “as a totally independent candidate” and promises that “he will only make decisions for what’s best for Yarm”.
Brian is deeply critical of the thousands of pounds that he feels were wasted on a failed judicial review, and a non-binding parish poll on Yarm for Yorkshire.
Barbara WEGG
YRA Group
UPDATE: Cllr Barbara Wegg and her husband Cllr Bob Wegg later resigned from Yarm Town Council.
Barbara Wegg (pictured at Snaith’s Field, off Bentley Wynd) is standing for the YRA Group.
Barbara, who’s husband Bob (also a YRA Councillor) is a keen allotment holder, moved to Yarm forty five years ago, where both her children went to school, as do her four grandchildren.
For the past eight years she has “taken an keen interest in” Yarm Town Council and feels that she now has “the time to dedicate” herself to it fully.
Barbara is “deeply interested in the history of Yarm” and promises to be “hands on” and “work for the people of Yarm”.
