INTERVIEW
life
Fighting back
Anne Bishop has had to deal with controversy and
personal tragedy while bringing up a young child. But
she is determined to carry on
WHEN the going gets tough, she’ll bring
in doughnuts for the entire office. Anne
Bishop, town councillor and deputy mayor
of Shanklin, likes to make things better. She
entered politics at the age of 18 to do just
that, and has been campaigning at a local
level ever since. But the last couple of years
have dealt her a nasty hand. Her husband
died after a two-year struggle with cancer,
while at the same time she felt the rough
edge of being a public figure. Anne has
needed to call on all her resources to keep
positive.
“I’m a glass half full sort of person,” she
confides. Which is just as well, given what
she has had to endure recently. Lets deal
with the political trouble first. Anne was
hauled over the coals when, in 2007, she
put in a planning application to change
the hotel she and her husband owned to
flats. “My application was approved by
the committee and the officers called for a
cooling off period. When it went back to the
committee, planning was refused.”
Not just refused but reported to the
Standards Body, and Anne was accused of
bringing the council into disrepute. The
then council Leader, Andy Sutton, felt he
had to resign over the issue, which ensured
it made the headlines. “I feel I’ve been
singled out,” says Anne, when prompted
to air her feelings. “There have been hotels
before and since my application which
have been allowed to convert to flats.” She
feels particularly aggrieved because it was
only the modern part at the back she was
intending to change. The Victorian frontage
would have remained untouched, to keep
the street scene the same.
The issue is still unresolved, and a hearing
Article by Jo Macaulay
in three or four months time hangs over her.
“It’s been a very stressful time and I don’t
think I’ve done anything wrong, I did not
want any special advantage, just a normal
level playing field along with everyone else.”
Being caught up in such a maelstrom
would have been bad enough in most
circumstances. But while all this was going
on Anne’s husband Colin was dying. In 2006
his persistent backache had been diagnosed
as multiple myealoma, and Anne had cared
for him over 18 horrible months as he
battled the cancer. They had been together
26 years. “His greatest sadness was that he
would not see Nicholas grow up,” she says
sadly. “I am very grateful that Colin died at
home with Nicholas in his arms and with me
at his side.”
Nicholas, now six, was a joy to his father
– and a bit of a shock for his mother.
Colin had two daughters from his previous
marriage but Anne could not have children.
“Healthy as a horse but funny hormones,”
she says briskly, “so imagine my surprise to
find out that a suspected pulled muscle from
a showjumping lesson was in fact my being
six months pregnant.” She gave birth to
Nicholas in 2002.
“Colin loved Nicholas so much,” said Anne.
“He took him to school – so he got there on
time – and had limitless patience with him.
Nicholas has definitely inherited his father’s
love of trains,” she goes on. “Colin always
explained he was ‘operating a scale model
railway’ not ‘playing trains’,” she laughs.
Theirs was a good partnership.“Colin was a
farmer, he’d trained at the Royal Agricultural
College, and was much older than me.
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Friends and acquaintances put it down to his
mid-life crisis and gave us six months. Well
26 years later we had the last laugh,” said
Anne.
It was whilst she was canvassing in
Thurrock that they met. “I knocked on his
door to see if he had been out to vote and
26 years later, as they say, it’s history.” For
Anne was just 18 when she got involved
with the conservative party, and although
she jokes that “she’s always been sad like
that,” she is obviously committed to finding
a way to make changes.
Anne was an only child, born in the East
End Maternity Hospital in 1961. “I’m a
proper cockney,” she says. If her beginnings
were ordinary, her academic aptitude was
not: she achieved 13 O levels in one sitting.
“But reality bit back with ‘A’ levels where
I ended up with four lousy passes,” said
Anne, with a characteristic tendency towards
self-deprecation. She went on to complete
two years of an honours degree in Law
at the Bournemouth Institute of Higher
education.
Anne’s father was an engineer and she
grew up visiting factories. Once they made
a detour to a factory and her mother,
who had been left in the car, came to find
them. She found An