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Janet Smith
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Janet has been involved with the Taste of the Town exhibitions organising a display of paintings and exhibits from local primary school children. Janet was raised in North Manchester. Her father was a railwayman all
his working life and her mother was an industrial machinist in a cotton
mill. When she left school she went to Salford College of Art and technology.
After 2 years of the Textile Design degree programme she dropped out.
She loved the design work but wasn't at all keen on the sewing. She
got a temporary job in accounts with the Co-operative Wholesale Society.
She ended up staying on and running the administration of the Green
Fruit Department. This was at the time when companies began to pre-pack
food items rather than sell them loose. Janet had an office on the floor
of the warehouse. They distributed pre-packed fruit and vegetables to
Co-op stores throughout the country. |
After 3 years Janet moved her office to a Margarine works in Irlam where the CWS set up a brand new, much larger, pre-packaging department. She recalls the disruption among the women packers at the occasional appearance of a tarantula or cockroach as they emerged from their semi-frozen state in the holds of the banana boats. The main problem they faced was maintaining the workers in the face of variations in demand. She recalls one weekend when husband Arnold, who was in charge of production, had to persuade everybody on the site not just the women on the shop floor, to work through the Easter Weekend to meet a last minute order. Arnold inherited a cottage in Market Drayton and they had to make a decision about their next move. They opted to come down to Market Drayton as a life style choice. Janet started the family and Arnold transferred to the CWS glasshouses at Roden near Shawbury where he managed the pre-packing of tomatoes and cucumbers until the site was closed. Janet has remained a shareholder in the Co-op and a member of the Co-operative party. Janet is leader of the Labour Group on both the District and Town Councils. She is very much an informal point of contact for local people who want help, especially those who want to make a case to the North Shropshire District Council where she is also Vice Chairman of Planning and Corporate Services Committee wghich covers economic regeneration. Janet is Chair of Finance on Market Drayton Town Council and a Council nominated Trustee of the Greenfields Sports Association. She is also a Governor at Market Drayton Junior School. She helps with fund raising for Mencap, Festival Drayton and the Guides. She is Secretary to the Market Drayton Older Peoples Forum and a Committee member of the Muller Community Trust. She is Secretary of the local branch of Mencap and a member of the County based Learning Disabilities Board. |
Looking for |
Offering to |
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Janet hopes to draw from the
Network volunteers who are willing to sit on the Mencap Management
Committee and help to raise funds. |
She offers to the network access
to her own contacts and local knowledge of administration systems
and how work the bureaucracy and how it works. |
List of other members with a special interests in
Contact:
Phone 01630 654524
E-mail cllr.jsmith@northshropshiredc.gov.uk