Tributes paid to former Mayor of Hyndburn
TRIBUTES have been paid to a former councillor and Hyndburn Mayor who passed away on New Year’s Day after a long illness.
Sonia BramleyHaworth served her home town of Great Harwood as Overton ward representative for 12 years.
In 1993 she was appointed Mayor of Hyndburn and in 2005 she received the borough’s highest honour - the Honorary Alderman award.
Sonia passed away at Dove Court Residential Home in Burnley aged 76.
Her husband of 43 years Nigel Bramley-Haworth, a former Huncoat councillor and Conservative Group leader, paid tribute. He said: “We lived in the ward she represented. She enjoyed the committee work on the council and also enjoyed dealing with people’s problems.
“She was a very elegant lady and took a great deal of care about her personal appearance.
“She had a lovely manner and really enjoyed meeting people and talking to people. She had a way of putting people at ease.
“She was a huge support to me in my life and my personal interests as well. I always thought we made a very good team.”
Sonia represented Overton for the Conservatives from 1984 to 1996 and chaired the Accrington Ladies Circle in the early 1980s.
She was also a nonexecutive director of Communicare NHS Trust and later Hyndburn and Ribble Valley Primary Care Trust for more than a decade in the 1990s and 2000s.
Nigel said: “She loved doing that and was very involved. There was a lot of committee work, she visited a lot of places that the trust were responsible for and she spoke to the staff.
“I believe she was very highly regarded in the work she did.”
County Councillor Peter Britcliffe, a former Hyndburn council leader, said Sonia was a ‘ great lady’ and offered ‘very good guidance to the group’ before he became leader of the Conservative Group.
He said: “I’m so sad to hear this news. I know she has been ill for quite some time but nevertheless this is a sad blow and our thoughts go out to Nigel.”
Coun Miles Parkinson said: “It’s always sad to lose past colleagues on the council. She dedicated her public service to Great Harwood and to the whole borough when she was Mayor. I wasn’t on the council when they both were but over the 25 years I have seen them at civic functions. Our thoughts go our to Nigel.”