A Biddulph councillor has warned residents that using the local elections to “stick two fingers up to the Government” will do nothing to help the town.
Coun Jill Salt, who is now in her final year on the town council after 11 years, said that while national politics often dominated public debate, the “real test” for local candidates should be their record of community service.
In a letter to the “Chronicle”, Coun Salt urged residents to look closely at who is already active in the community when deciding how to vote.
She said: “They’ll be the ones making the tea, the ones with dirt under their fingernails picking litter, or directing traffic during a road closure for a festival event.
“If you’ve not heard of them on the ballot paper come May, chances are they’re not in it for the community.”
Coun Salt reflected on more than a decade of work in Biddulph, saying she had “worked hard for our community – as a councillor should” while also raising two sons and holding down a full-time job.
During her time in office she became the youngest female mayor of Biddulph and helped secure the continuation of breast-screening visits to the town every three years, working with Coun Kev Jackson to bring key agencies together.
She also pushed for mental health first aid training places for residents, campaigned for the re-installation of the town’s mining lanterns, and was one of only two councillors – alongside the late Hilda Sheldon – to argue that the mining wheel should remain at the town hall.
Coun Salt raised more than £8,000 for charities during and after her mayoral year, taking on challenges including a 100km lockdown row and a 10km continuous swim.
She also helped establish a fuel bank to support residents struggling with energy bills, delivered food parcels, taken people to the food bank, and delivered hundreds of prescriptions during covid, each with a handwritten postcard to lift spirits. She volunteered at vaccination centres, ran a garden competition, and dealt with hundreds of pieces of casework ranging from no fault evictions to loneliness and neighbourhood disputes.
She said her intention in speaking out was to help residents understand what local councillors could and could not influence.
She said: “I cannot shape the international agenda, I cannot shape the national agenda, but I can make positive change in my local community.”
Coun Salt acknowledged the efforts of colleagues with whom she did not always agree politically, praising Coun Joe Porter for the “endless hours he gives to make his patch a better place”, and naming Couns Nigel Yates, Charlie Smith, Jim Garvey, Wayne Rogers, Adam Parkes, Kevin Jackson, the Rev Yan Yan Case, Carl Kisicki and John Jones as councillors who “go above and beyond”.
“I’ll still be grafting in my community as a volunteer, but I won’t be asking for your vote in 2027,” she said.
She added: “Thank you for trusting me with your vote for the last three election cycles – I have done my best and I am proud of my record and my contribution.”
