Although not what is popularly known as “a local girl”, Sue Woolley has lived in the area for 35 years and has represented the Bourne Abbey ward on Lincolnshire County Council as a Conservative member since she was first elected in October 2008 when she topped the poll in a by-election following the resignation of Mark Horn, beating six other candidates from most of the other leading parties.

Sue consolidated her success at the local government elections with 1,298 votes in June 2009 and again in May 2013, this time standing against four candidates when she polled 969 votes.

Since then, she has made her mark at the county council in the area of personal health by becoming executive councillor for NHS Liaison and Community Engagement, chairman of the Lincolnshire Health and Wellbeing Board and member of the South Lincolnshire Clinical Commissioning Group governing body, lead member on the East Midlands Adult Social Care and Health Councillor Network and a company member of Community Lincs.

She has found her role both rewarding and personally satisfying as well as being able to serve the people, an objective at the very heart of a local councillor’s work. “I feel truly fortunate to represent the area where I live”, she said. “I love meeting and chatting with people and it gives me enormous satisfaction to be able to help someone and sort out their problems, sometimes in only a small way but it does make life that little bit easier for them.”

Sue was born at Bedford and after school, decided on a career in farming and enrolled at the Riseholme Agricultural College at Lincoln where she met her future husband. After their marriage they farmed at Elsthorpe, near Bourne, where they also raised three sons.

“During those years when the boys were growing up, I worked in the family business”, said Sue. “This involved a variety of jobs, all those things expected of a farmer’s wife, lambing sheep, calving cows and even driving tractors, anything in fact that needed doing.”

In 2004, she moved to Morton, near Bourne, where she now lives and has become absorbed not only in her council work but also the other avenues of interest that have opened up as a result of becoming a councillor.

These include the county council’s official representative on the Lincolnshire Sports Partnership, a member of HM Prison Service Peterborough Independent Monitoring Board, a trustee of the Willoughby Gallery at Corby Glen, and also has a special interest in local education as a trustee of Bourne Grammar School and Bourne Academy as well as being a member of the Bourne and Billingborough Policing Panel.

She has also secured a high profile through her work for the community by attending meetings of the town and parish councils whenever possible and helping to resolve a wide range of issues and problems connected with health, highways and adult social care and is always ready to step in whenever services have been at risk, notably the proposed loss of the registration service in West Street in 2012 which was eventually found a new home at the new Community Access Point at the Corn Exchange, and in trying to speed up the building of a new primary school for the Elsea Park estate.

Sue’s role in raising awareness over the loss of our high street shops also attracted the interest of our local newspapers which followed her progress week after week in her attempts to stimulate trade by proving that most items to be found in the big towns were also available in Bourne provided you took the time to look around.

She also supports many local groups and organisations financially through the county council’s Big Society Fund which enables councillors make donations, among them the army cadets in Bourne, Neighbourhood Watch, Morton Baptist Church and Dyke village hall.

Her philosophy is simple and personal rather than political, and is based on a few basic ideas that have a wide public appeal. “The individual comes first”, she said. “I always try to ensure the voice of the old, the young and the vulnerable will always be heard. I will always work with others for the benefit of the community, irrespective of party politics and I will never make false promises or be a party to wasting taxpayers’ money.”

But it is not all work and Sue does have her enjoyment outside the council chamber, surprisingly through the sound of willow on leather. “Yes, my great joy away from the day job is cricket, cricket and more cricket”, she said. “I learned to score when I was fifteen and have loved the game ever since. You have to watch the ball with great care and this helps build up an appreciation of good bowling, batting and fielding. There is so much skill involved. I can never understand why some people say it is boring. My greatest treat is to take myself off to Trent Bridge every so often for a great day out.”

WRITTEN AUGUST 2013