Sarah Selected For Castleton

Sarah Kisa-Smith Selected To Stand In Castleton Ward In This Years Local Elections

Sarah Kisa- Smith went to school Bishop Henshaw RC Memorial School (now St. Cuthbert's) in Rochdale before graduating with a degree from Manchester Metropolitan University in Biomedical Science. She worked for over a decade in various Manchester hospital clinical labs before becoming a foster carer nine years ago. She has lived in Castleton for over 30 years. She has a grown up daughter called Jane and is married to Ramos with whom she runs a catering business and sandwich van at Slattocks.

Her priorities for Castleton are:

• Save the Greenbelt! "The spatial framework was wrong last year and its replacement 'Places For Everyone' is wrong this year - even if you change the name of it! Building houses across Slattocks does not solve the housing crisis for those who need housing the most. We need to freeze these plans until we have the correct population data and projections after the Census is complete. Then we can set about a strategy to build of building the homes we need."

• Make Castleton a great place to live. "Post- Covid we need to help new and existing businesses back on their feet. The village centre in Castleton is looking tired and needs regenerating. We can attract small and medium businesses back through incentives similar to Rochdale Town Centre. We need to develop the canal front too. As your local Councillor I will make sure that we put Castleton first we do not need another Town Hall politician."

• Fix the roads! "OK, I know that's a cliché, but I will be a Councillor who listens to constituents, who is available via a range of different means and will be open, honest and transparent. I want to be the type of Councillor that I want - one who delivers the basic services for everyone and acts as an advocate when something isn't right."

She also has wider ambitions and targets for Rochdale too. "Being a foster carer is as rewarding as it is exhausting. With three young ones at home at the minute, we are both constantly reminded how hard being a modern parent is. Fostering is a difficult process and there is a lot of necessary red tape, it has to be to make it safe for the children. It would be good however, if we could have a single point of contact where all children's groups and activities can be advertised/accessed, it is often difficult to find the right groups for the children who come. That would be a change I'd like to make.