Community champion Debbie is elected Mayor of Greater Manchester

Wigan councilors have installed community champion and long-time colleague Councilor Debbie Parkinson as the authority’s new ceremonial mayor. Councilor Parkinson, 67, takes up the post alongside fellow Standish and Langree ward member Councilor Terry Mugan, who is her consort.

Councilor Jenny Bullen will serve as deputy mayor, while her husband and fellow ward Andrew Bullen is her consort. After taking over the role from outgoing mayor Cllr Kevin Anderson, Councilor Parkinson has earmarked Wigan and Leigh Hospice – where he has served as a voluntary bereavement counselor for the past 13 years – and family mediation service Talk First as charities .

Born in Hammersmith, London, Coun Parkinson moved to Standish in 1976 when he married. The mother of three is a licensed lay minister of St. Wilfrid’s Church in Standish. She was first elected to Wigan council in 2019 and, after being re-elected in 2023, was named Wigan’s ‘Older People’s Champion’.

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She was appointed to the board of Wigan Citizens Advice Bureau in March this year. Coun Parkinson has been a volunteer in Standish since the 1970s and is a member of the Christmas Market Committee and the Joint Churches Together Committee.

She told fellow councillors: “I am delighted and privileged to be heard as Mayor-elect of Wigan. I would not be here without the unwavering support of my family, colleagues and council officers. I am grateful to the leader (councilor David Molyneux) for the faith he has shown in me. I commit to the neighborhood with honesty and integrity. I promise to represent Wigan to the best of my ability.”