Meet the new leader of Lancaster City Council - food charity volunteer, company director, Street Pastor and school governor

The former headteacher of Hornby High School said she wasn't sure what to do next when the school was shut down in 2009.

On being elected leader of Lancaster City Council last week, the Bulk Ward councillor told the Lancaster Guardian that back then she would have "dismissed the idea out of hand" but is now both "amazed and happy" to be where she is now.

Coun Jackson said the Green Party's leadership bid in Lancaster was for a change of style, rather than a change of policy content.

She dismissed claims that the Green Party had formed an alliance with the Conservative Party in Lancaster, and that the vote came down simply to how fellow councillors felt on the night.

"We put forward our leadership as a change of style and we spoke in full council to explain that we wanted a co-operative and kind form of relationship with the chamber," she said.

"We went into the leadership contest not knowing if the votes were there, but we wanted to stand for what we believe in, and it came down to what people felt on the night."

Coun Jackson said one of the major challenges in the Lancaster district was the recovery of businesses following the Covid-19 pandemic and the reinstatement of tourism and attractions.

"We want to ensure the centres of both Lancaster and Morecambe can thrive again," she said.

No stranger to community involvement, Coun Jackson is a trustee of Morecambe Bay Foodbank, director of MORE Renewables, an occasional Street Pastor helping young people get home safely, a governor at Castle Hill Primary School, and helps run a food club on the Ridge Estate within her ward.

She also collects food from Preston FareShare for a food charity that she volunteers with each week, and founded the Claver Hill project - buying land to the east of Lancaster a few years ago which she is now in the process of gifting to the community in perpetuity.