Tributes have been paid to a 'great community activist' who served as a Tameside councillor and mayoress. Sheila Ballagher, who represented Ashton Waterloo from 1999 to 2004, has died aged 68.
Mrs Ballagher was one of three members of her family to serve on the local authority, along with husband Mike Ballagher and daughter Eleanor Wills, who has represented the Dukinfield-Stalybridge ward since 2014. She supported Mr Ballagher, who is now an honorary alderman of Tameside, as mayoress in 1996-97 and deputy mayoress in 1993-94.
Mrs Ballagher also served on Tameside's racial equality council. Coun Wills, who is Tameside Council's executive member for population health and wellbeing, told the Manchester Evening News she was 'heartbroken' following the loss of her mum - but her 'love, strength and steadfast family ethos will live on'.
