Our twenty-fifth candidate profile is for Labour Party Candidate Tracey Lindop.
As part of our election coverage, we’ve asked the candidates some high-level questions. All responses are un-edited.
- Candidate Name: Tracey Lindop
- Party: Labour Party
- Election: Stone Town Council / Stafford Borough Council
- Ward: Walton South / Walton
Tell our readers about yourself:
My family have lived in Walton for 20 years. My husband was in the Royal Marines and so, due to postings, we have also lived in the South West of England, but Stone has always been our home. I have worked as a teacher and have an interest in Environmental Education and also worked for a rescue and rehabilitation conservation charity that specialises in rescuing primates from the UK pet trade. I am passionate about animal welfare, the environment in which we live and dogs! I am usually out and about pounding the streets with my Jack Russell and in many ways that’s how I came to stand as a candidate.
What’s your personal statement about why you’re standing and what you want to do over the next 4 years:
When I moved back to Walton three years ago, I noticed that there was a litter problem in the local area. I am not someone who finds it easy to walk on by, sometimes I wish I could moan about something and then get on with life, but I’m not. After my dog cut her feet several times on broken glass and with so much damaging plastic waste in our environment I started SWAPP: Stone and Walton Against Plastic Pollution Litter group and registered Stone in a Plastic Free Communities Initiative.
I am standing in the elections because I feel I am able to take direct action on issues and would have the ability to help residents in my community, whether that is liaising with other agencies or the council and have been able to do this with the issue of littering and antisocial behaviour.
Over the next four years I would hope to gain Stone Plastic Free status. I am currently discussing my proposals with the town council. I would hope to work on Climate Change Environmental Action Plans, which councils urgently need to implement, with vision and knowledge to create a sustainable and economically viable future for our town.
Walton has seen a huge increase in house building and the traffic has increased on our roads. Having researched the air pollution statistics I would continue to monitor this issue and look to encouraging policies that would reduce air pollution for all our health. I would also wish to work on policies or initiatives that help the most vulnerable and the least well off in our community, which in a town like ours, can sometimes be hidden away.
I would like to see Walton getting more attention, we also have shops, play areas, need litter collecting and our green spaces protecting and enhancing and I would be a loud voice championing ‘our side of town’!
How does standing as a political party candidate affect serving local people on local issues?
I am a local person and have local concerns, first and foremost, but being a part of the Labour Party can help on local issues, after all Labour values are all about community and common endeavour. Staffordshire Labour groups worked together to petition locally against the proposed cuts to our lollipop patrols. Stone Labour gathered signatures in the town and leafleted outside our schools. Staffordshire County Council dropped the cuts to this service, but there are so many other services under threat due to the savage cuts the Conservative government has made to council budgets and on issues like this it is beneficial to tap into a national campaign and for our voice to carry more weight.
I also gained support from Stone Labour group and the Labour group on Stafford Borough Council to oppose the sale of the protected green space on Tilling Drive. I believe more Labour representation on the Borough Council and a reduction in one party control, would be advantageous for Stone.
For me doing everything you can, with all those of influence is the most effective way to get the job done. I try to do that now and feel I would be able to do this even more constructively if I was elected. Like my terrier, I’m tenacious.
Do you live in Stone, if not what’s your link to Stone and your reason for standing as Stone candidate?
I live in the Walton South ward.
What’s been your history as a political councillor?
I have no history as a councillor, but have gained many skills throughout my different careers. Most importantly I can listen, research, be impartial, scrutinise, have vision, ideas and have compassion.
- What are the top 5 issues that you think affect the residents of Stone over the next 5 years?
- Increased traffic and air pollution; due to overdevelopment and the proposed HS2 railhead (which I am opposed to).
- Preserving our green spaces yet enhancing them; for nature recovery, play facilities and leisure.
- The pressure on our services; healthcare, elderly social care, school place provision, policing and affordable housing provision for our young people to continue living locally.
- Addressing parking and local transport provision.
- Focussing planning and development sympathetically in an environmentally sustainable way.
How will you keep in touch with your constituents concerns?
Via email, social media, post or phone and as a people person, I would like to do drop in sessions.
