A MAN Of THE PEOPLE

- MIKE BLADON -

Mike Bladon has lived in Kibworth with his wife Pat since 1965. The houses is Springfield Crescent had only just been built and the area around the house was a sea of mud and snow. Mike is now Chairman of Beauchamp Parish Council and a Ward member on the District Council.

This article is not about Mike's politics but about the man himself and how he came to be so involved in the local political scene.

Mike was born in Branksom, Dorset in 1935. The family moved to Chesham in Bucks during the war. By the time Mike left school the family had moved again to Nottingham where his first job was in an accountancy firm, but this was not the life for him. The technical background of his father's family had a considerable influence on him, they had been mining engineers in Staffordshire for several previous generations and his father was trained as an electronics engineer. Mike certainly had no intention of following in his mother's footsteps which had led her onto the stage. She was a child actress and dancer and at one point appeared on the stage at Drury Lane, during the First World war! Nottingham was renown for its lace and a local firm, Dobson & Brown gave Mike his first taste of a manufacturing environment. This first taste was however short lived as he was called up for National Service. Two years were spent in Derby with the Sherwood Foresters, where he became a Sergeant training officer. in unarmed combat, (could this be of use in the Council Chamber, I wonder!). 1955 saw him back working for Dobson & Brown as their London sales rep. In order to widen his experience and increase his qualifications he joined the Hosiery & Allied Trades Research Association in Nottingham as Liaison Officer. While there he qualified as a Textile Technologist and it was also here that he met Pat who was working in the Physics labs as a technician. Their relationship blossomed and the liaison officer did such a good job that they were married in 1960. Mike's next career move was to take him to Coventry as Divisional Development Officer for Courtaulds. A house was purchased near Victoria Park in Leicester and the family became three with the birth of Andrew. Mike was instrumental in developing and promoting the new wonder material Nylon. His main job was to establish links between Courtaulds and ICI. In 1963 the company then moved him to the customer services department as Senior Technician in order to increase his knowledge of the other yarns manufactured. The 1965 move to Kibworth, now with daughter, Alisa as well as son Andrew, took place and provided a secure base for the family to grow up. In 1967 the link between Courtaulds and ICI finished and Mike was made Project Leader of an independent Nylon division with factories over in Ireland. Mike's standing in the company continued to rise and in 1974 he was made World Sales manager for the Polyester division. Commercial manager and acting board member followed from 1984 to 1991 and then an American takeover of the Courtaulds Acetate necessitated a rethink as to his career direction. He was offered a job by the American owners but would have had to move to Italy. Family life came first, so when a job offer came from a family company called Slykay in Preston Mike took it. Since 1991 Mike has been their Sales Manager.

It is difficult to imagine how such a busy and successful working life can leave time for anything else but when their two children were small the sailing bug bit the Bladon family. Regular weekend trips to Holwell in Northamptonshire took place with two dinghies and holiday time saw them down at Salcombe in Devon. Family sailing was phased out in the 1980's and it was then that their combined interest in travel began to develop with the first of many trips to France. Pat is an excellent cook and in 1971 was Electricity Board 'Cook of the Year'. Mike tells me that in such competitions he is in charge of table plans, he knows when a fork is in the wrong place! I wonder if a certain Mrs Bucket has heard of him. 1986 was a busy year with Andrew and Alisa getting married within six weeks of each other. Mike and Pat are now proud grandparents four times over and regularly in demand as baby sitters. Amazingly Mike still finds time to be the external advisor to Derby University on their Design and Textile degree course.

My next big question was how had he become involved in the political scene. Mike firmly blames Rosemary White! She had been involved in local politics for a time and when a vacancy on Beauchamp Parish council came up she rang him. Mike felt that over the years he had taken a lot out of the community and this might be the opportunity to put something back. So in 1993 he was elected onto the Parish Council. The rest as they say is history. His job as Chairman of Beauchamp Parish Council keeps him busy enough but as a District Councillor he sits on the Environmental Service and Housing committees and is vice chair of the Contract Services committee. He spends at least three night and some weekends on council and parish work. He feels that his commercial experience has helped him a lot in the cut and thrust of the political arena. Mike is very much a 'Man of the people' it is never possible to please all the people all the time but Mike is trying to use his considerable ability for the benefit of the community he is proud and happy to live in.

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