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Councillor on a break after stroke

7:00pm Saturday 28th January 2012 in News

Peter Jones Peter Jones

ABINGDON councillor Peter Jones is taking a six-month break from his community work after suffering a stroke in December.

Mr Jones, who is still in hospital, is a town, district and county councillor.

Town mayor Mike Badcock said: “Peter is a hard working, experienced and popular member of the town council. Due to his illness he is unable to undertake his council work.

“Our thoughts are with him, his wife Gill and his family and we send our best wishes for a full recovery.”

Abingdon Town Council agreed the leave earlier this week.

Mr Jones, 67, of Glyme Close, has represented Abingdon East on Oxfordshire County Council since 2009.

The Conservative was elected to Vale of White Horse District Council and the town council in local elections last May.

Town council leader Sandy Lovatt, who also serves on all three local authorities, has asked the county and district councils to also give Mr Jones six months’ leave.

He said: “This is to give him time to recover because he had quite a severe stroke. He is presently in the John Radcliffe Hospital in the stroke unit.”

Mr Jones also served as a town and district councillor from 2003 to 2007.

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Comments(4)

mickeybear says...
9:10am Sun 29 Jan 12

Indeed, and I wish him well too. Whatever one thinks of their politics, there is little denying that councillors put in an enormous amount of time and effort, often at a time in life when many others are easing up on the accelerator. Half of their time is assumed to be voluntary, the rest is recompensed by expenses. In reality, I'm sure the proportion is more heavily skewed towards the voluntary.

May he make a good recovery and receive every possible help - before local stroke services are dismantled (along with much of the rest of the NHS as part of his government's healthcare reforms).

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the wizard says...
10:19am Sun 29 Jan 12

I maybe no fan of the Tory Party, BUT, I wish the man well and hope he gets all the help, rehab, physcio etc he needs to recover. Strokes can be really nasty and difficult to recover from as we all get older. Pushing yourself has to be the order of the day, strong determination and not giving up. I wish you all the best Mr Jones, don't give up, and don't settle for being second best. Hopefully you have quite a few years left in you yet, so be an example of what can be achieved, go for it.

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lookingfromhere says...
2:45pm Wed 1 Feb 12

"Town mayor Mike Badcock said: “Peter is a hard working, experienced and popular member of the town council. Due to his illness he is unable to undertake his council work"
Well if that's the case then he should resign, but Mr Badcock and co know only too well that if he does resign that would mean a by election and the Tory town council (who won by just one seat) could very well be overthrown and that could mean the return of the Lib/Dems and Mrs Lovatt might not be the next mayor after all ?
Voting to give him six months leave my foot, they're protecting their one seat majority

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Abingdon Neil says...
4:01pm Wed 1 Feb 12

I think 'lokkingfromhere' is being a little unfair.

There is a long-standing convention in local government that councillors will be given a break under this rule if they are suffering from an illness from which they may recover, have a period of work abroad etc.

This is quite reasonable after a serious stroke.

Personally, and despite being from anothr party, I wish Peter Jones well and hope he does indeed make a recovery.

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