When Trumpington elected Barbara Ashwood in 2013, they chose well.
When Trumpington elected Barbara Ashwood in 2013, they chose well.
She was clearly ideally suited for the job of a county councillor. Over 40 years as a Cambridgeshire librarian gave her detailed knowledge of the county as a whole and of the dilemmas faced by officers. It also gave her informed and sympathetic understanding of the problems faced by people from all walks of life.
Although cancer had forced her early retirement, she turned it into an asset. She had learned from personal experience how important good neighbours are, especially to someone whose working life left little time for community activities.
Once retired, she got involved in local community events, and was a familiar sight dishing out bacon rolls or mulled wine. Her library background translated easily into work on the communities committee of the County Council, of course, but she also relished working in new areas such as the Fire Authority, a particular favourite of hers. She often said how much she appreciated the challenges that came her way as a county councillor.
She once commented wryly that she felt like the ‘County Councillor for Parking’ when her emails were rather dominated by traffic problems. Patient and diplomatic, she wrestled with the competing interests of car owners and other road users. and helped to hammer out a fairer system in Accordia, the first of our new housing developments.
Barbara’s skills came even more into their own in her second term, in the time of the Covid pandemic. She herself was of course strictly shielded, but this did not prevent her from being both an efficient administrator of our Trumpington Volunteer Service and a telephone buddy to many isolated residents. Without her calm voice and listening ear, I for one would not have managed to deliver the practical help that people needed during those anxious and uncertain times when we had to work out ways to help people safely.
When I succeeded her as county councillor, this partnership continued, and Barbara welcomed the new professional networks that had developed during Covid. She welcomed the ways in which what CoSMIC is breaking down some of the barriers between district and county officers, and between officers and members of the public that she thought got in the way.
During her long career she recognised the changing times. This showed in her designs for new local libraries and proposals for the re-organisation of Cambridge Central, and discussed my updates from the Library Working Party.
She always preferred to work across party boundaries and I know that there will be many of her former Conservative colleagues who will be sorry to hear that she is no longer with us.
I shall leave you with her own words, typically on the subject of books. The day before she died, I phoned her from Waterstones to see if she had got the new Robert Galbraith
and to ask if she wanted to go halves on it. I started to suggest that we could wait for the price to go down a bit. Either the line was bad, or her voice was a bit weak, but she cut the conversation short, and just said “Go for it”
Philippa Slatter - 19/10/25