Tower and Town, April 2020

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Councillor Lisa FarrelI

Ms Lisa Farrell was Mayor from 2018 to 2019. In this post, she hoped to make a strong connection between the Council and the Town and do more community-based things, interacting with the local people and listening to their complaints or advice. Another big target for her was to help the youth by developing a new Youth Centre.

She feels she has achieved what she hoped for, but she wasn’t perfect, as no one is. She wanted to be a member of the Council because she felt it lacked real connection with the town and was not representing the people enough. She also hates the drug problem in the town as dealers can always find a way to smuggle drugs into Marlborough. This problem has affected her and her family and she is passionate about trying to crack down on the availability of drugs in the town.

In general, she would like to build closer connections between the young and the elderly, so that each group understands the other better. She feels that residents have lost some of their sense of care for each other. Lisa works closely with the police for the good of the community and thinks that CCTV cameras are a good idea, particularly where there are vulnerable people.

As Mayor, Lisa was pleased to be able to reopen the new play area near Waitrose car park, with Mark Cooper. She also introduced Tesco to the town, which helped bring down supermarket prices. She was proud to have had the honour of lighting the beacon on the Common, commemorating the signing of the armistice in 1918, and pleased by how that event had brought the community of Marlborough together.

Ms Farrell hopes that the Council would build places where young people and the elderly could meet together. She also feels that the town is lacking green spaces but also recognizes that land is needed to provide more social housing. She believes that there are not enough traffic lights around the town and feels that they are particularly needed around the entrances to local schools.

If she could get anything for the town, she would like to see an affordable café or restaurant, which people on lower incomes could afford to use. A lot of the shops in Marlborough are very expensive and many people have to go to Swindon to buy everyday things.

Arthur Ho