Former Oldham Council leader Councillor Jean Stretton has died at the age of 64.
Cllr Stretton was raised locally on Alt Estate and educated at Alt Primary and Hathershaw Comprehensive schools. After studying an MBA at Bolton Institute, she returned to live in Hollinwood in 1989.
Jean lived there ever since and was first elected as a ward councillor for the area in 2003. She has held several Cabinet Member posts, covering a wide range of areas that include housing, health and wellbeing, town centres, culture and tourism.
In 2013, she was named ‘Community Champion of the Year’ at the Councillor Achievement Awards, organised by the LGiU, for what judges called her “inspiring work to help her community in Oldham recover following a gas explosion” in Shaw.
Married to John, she has two step-children, five grandchildren and a great granddaughter and described herself in biographic notes as “a very, very young great granny”.
Amongst her other duties, Jean was also chair of Oldham Credit Union, a governor at Oasis Academy, Limehurst primary and has served on the Contour Estate Board since 2003. She was also a keen supporter of Oldham Foodbank.
Cllr Stretton is the first Oldham Council Leader to die since Councillor JT Hilton (Tenny) in February 1986.
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