Andrew Cooley

This week I’ve taken over from Cllr. Mary Maxfield as portfolio holder for Active Communities and Culture for a couple of months while Mary isn’t available.  My diary commitments have suddenly exploded and  scarcely a day will go by without at least one meeting.  Amongst the responsibilities is chairing the Newcastle Children’s Trust Board, which meets next week.  I’m looking forward to being able to contribute to the partnership that looks after children’s and young people’s services in the town and tries to make them more effective.

I was outside the store last weekend collecting signatures on our petition - which you can sign on line on the local Lib Dem website.  We’ve now got well over 3,000 signatures, and the petition will be sent to the M&S directors.

People were keen to sign, and many commented that the store was always busy, people were often queueing at the check outs and that M&S should be looking for a bigger store rather than closing this one.