Editor’s Comment June

WHEN Cllr Alan Oulton was installed as Mayor of Frodsham at the annual meeting of the Town Council he announced that his Mayoress would be his wife, Lorraine.
“We are a double act,” he said. “We always do everything together.”
What he didn’t tell the council, however, was just what that “double act” had achieved together.
He didn’t, for instance, tell how, when driving through the Woodhead Pass, in the Peak District, on a bitterly cold winter’s night, they saved the life of a young girl they saw lying by the roadside.
It was in January, 2004, and a blizzard was blowing. Snow lay on the road and Alan had to concentrate on his driving. But Lorraine thought she saw someone lying by the road. Her husband sujggested it could have been something that had fallen off a lorry, but she insisted they investigate.
The road was narrow so they had to drive on for about a mile before they could turn round and go back.
They found the 17-year-old girl dying of hypothermia.
Both were trained first-aiders and they had a foil survival blanket in the boot of their car. Lorraine tended to the girl while Alan parked his car to protect her, switched on his hazard warning lights and then ‘phoned for the ambulance.
Paramedics confirmed later that without their skill and equipment the girl may well have died.
This, then, is the calibre of the people who will be representing Frodsham at civic functions for the next 12 months. Some “double act!”
There will be people in Frodsham who have heard this story before. We had not – and we did not hear it from either Cllr or Mrs Oulton. We hope they are not annoyed we have chosen to repeat it.
Cllr Oulton has a hard act to follow as Mayor and will probably do the job in a very different way to Cllr Mallie Poulton – even if their surnames no rhyme! . But we feel pretty sure the Mayoralty is in safe hands.