Elections 2015: Profiles of the candidates (1)

NOW that the lists of candidates for the Elections 2015 have been published, Thame.Net is inviting all the candidates for a short profile, and the first are from the two Labour candidates for both Thame District and Town Council,  Mary Stiles (Thame North Ward) and  Tristram Maclean (South Ward).

Mary Stiles (left) and Tristram Maclean

MARY Stiles has lived in Thame for 46 years, now retired from a 40 year career in education. She was elected as a Thame Town Councillor in 2011, having previously served as a councillor on both TTC and SODC between 1995 and 2003. She is active in and supported by the Co-operative movement and currently is working hard as a town councillor to investigate the possibility of co-operative housing schemes.

Mary is a trustee of three local charities, Chair of a school governing body, Chair of the local Children’s Centre advisory group and a Director of the local partnership, 21st Century Thame. Having worked with young people for much of her working life, Mary was appalled when the Thame Youth Centre closed in 2011 and the qualified youth worker was made redundant. Having secured a one-off grant from Thame Town Council, she is now delighted that the Youth Café is open one day a week after school, but she would much prefer to see a county youth service reinstated in Thame and the surrounding villages.

Married to Colin, she has two daughters, who both attended Thame schools before moving elsewhere for university and work. In her spare time Mary enjoys spending time with her family, theatre visits, reading, walking and the latest exercise craze – Zumba!

TRISTRAM Maclean is a retired senior police officer. After leaving Scotland Yard he worked as an adviser delivering police reform in Africa. He has now settled in Thame; he has two children at Lord Williams’s and he runs a security business in the town. Tristram wants to play a part in preserving the character and integrity of the town. Like Mary, he is part of the Co-operative movement.

Tristram’s goal is to increase local accountability – he would like the abandoned councillor surgeries to be restored and he wants to see a greater transparency about the Council’s work. He has declared his opposition to the Elms planning application and pledges to provide a voice for local residents in the decision process. He argues that the Neighbourhood Plan was rushed out too fast, and the Elms is just the most prominent example of how residents are not being listened to.