I have spent all my working life in local government, after leaving college I started my employment in the Treasurers Department of Lancashire County Council. Qualifying as an Accounting Technician I progressed through different financial sections of the Council including Audit. Eventually I became the Financial Area Team Leader at the local Education Office.

In 1998 I left the Authority to look after my two small boys, as they became more independent I decided to look for a part time position. Ironically, while searching the local paper for a job for my husband, I chanced upon the vacancy for The Clerk to Ulnes Walton Parish Council, applied, had a very informal interview and was appointed in November 1999. With my previous experience the job fitted the bill perfectly and had the added benefit of working from home.

Ulnes Walton is a liner rural Parish in the Chorley district of Lancashire with around 800 residents; a public house, a restaurant; a service station come small shop; two prisons; a large garden centre; an equestrian centre; several farms and many small business.

My first impression of the Council was that the administration was very ‘old fashioned’ all the minutes and accounts were hand written in books, and there were no files just piles of paper. The same standard agenda was used every month and little seemed to be achieved, it was obvious too that the Members were not happy with the same old routine. So it was time to change!

Working in collaboration with the councillors, some with long experience and others quite new to the job, it wasn’t long before things started to happen. Firstly, I transferred all the records on to computer and changed the agendas so that more relevant items were discussed. Then we started thinking! It was then the ideas for projects came forward. Amongst the initiatives that I have been closely associated are: the production of a Parish Plan, painting competitions for the local schools, provision of much needed bus shelters; planting of bulbs in road side verges; hedging management for wildlife; initiatives with Wymott Prison workshops and most recently a successful campaign to have Ulnes Walton named on the Ordnance Survey maps.

With grant aid from Awards for All, in June of this year I organised a Past Present and Future Day, a celebration for the whole community. Ulnes Walton has a history dating back to the Vikings and to recreate the past I arranged for a group of Viking re-enactors to set up camp in the village. To celebrate the present there were contributions from all the active groups in the parish, such as Art, Jujitsu, WI, displays by the prison workshops and farm and the future was the consultation process for the Parish Plan. More than half the community came along to support on the day, the sun shone and we had a wonderful time.

The residents have greatly benefited from my identifying sources of funding for local amenities. Over the past couple of years the Parish has received over £13500 in grant aid to support local projects.

I am about to start work on a grant application for a major Heritage Project involving contributions from different sections of the community. We are going to look at enhancing habitats for wildlife; upgrading the public rights of way; creation of bridleways and cycle tracks; carry out an archaeological survey and hopefully have a dig next summer. A substantial grant will be needed for this but I am confident this can be achieved.

To me being a Clerk to a Parish Council is not just about taking minutes; keeping the records; writing letters etc. but to ensure that the Council makes a real difference to the community it serves. I feel it is important to talk to people about what they want and involve them as much as possible in the plans for the Parish. Hopefully, working with the community we can achieve our ambitious objectives. So what qualities are needed to carry this through? Firstly a sense of humour; tact; lots of initiative; patience and ambition.

Members of the Parish Council nominated me for the award of Parish Council Clerk of the Year. The annual competition open to the 10,000 Parish and Town Councils across the country, recognises outstanding achievement at the grass roots of local government. The competition was judged by an independent panel and the presentation was made at the National Association of Local Councils Annual Conference in Cardiff on the 4 October 2003. I was shocked and very proud to discover I had won, as I didn’t even expect to be considered, I am told that I was chosen as the winner for the work I have done with the wider community.

So what does the award mean for me, well hopefully this is only the beginning, in co-operation with a lively and enthusiastic set of councillors and a supportive electorate there is so much more that we can do. We’ve got Ulnes Walton on the map and we intend to keep it there!