Ann was first elected as Wealden District Councillor for the Framfield Ward in 2007. She was re-elected in 2011, 2015 and 2019. In 2009 she became Chairman of Planning Committee North until September 2012 when she was asked to join the Cabinet initially as Portfolio Holder for Corporate Services until May 2013 when she took over the role of Portfolio Holder for Planning and Development. She is now Leader of the Council and of the ruling Conservative group.
She is currently in the process of seeing through the various statutory processes of the Local Plan. She Chairs the Local Plan Committee and the Building Control Partnership. She has also been elected to sit on the Noise Management Board Executive liaising with Gatwick Airport.
Since becoming a District Councillor she has sat on a variety of other Committees including Environment Scrutiny and Licensing plus the Employees’ Consultative Group and Personnel Committee.
Over those years has spent that time putting every effort into her various roles for the strategic benefit of Wealden and to also ensure that Framfield & Waldron Ward (now Cross in Hand) has a strong voice on Wealden District Council.
Ann has lived in Blackboys for thirty years and after ‘retiring’ from a career in London to bring up her four children; became a Parish Councillor in 1995, then went on to become Parish Clerk in 1999. She served as a Governor for 10 years at Blackboys CE Primary School and is a Committee member of the Friends of St Thomas à Becket Church, Framfield. During the Covid-19 pandemic she acted as the main contact for the Wealden Community Hub, co-ordinating help for vulnerable people who needed support to be able to stay at home and as the Ward contact for the Uckfield foodbox scheme. She is also Secretary to the local Mid-Weald Conservative Branch and an officer on the Wealden Constituency Conservative Association.
During the last 13 years, Ann has developed valuable experience at senior level, working on issues that deeply affect communities and families such as planning, housing, traffic calming/speed of traffic, highway maintenance and flooding, refuse collection, council tax, rents and benefits. Alongside her comprehensive local knowledge she also brings to local government her wide-ranging experience from her earlier career in business.
