Peerage for ex-council chief Susan Williams

FORMER Conservative leader of Trafford Council Susan Williams has been given a seat in the House of Lords.

She was named as one of 30 new peers announced by Downing Street yesterday.

Mrs Williams, who will become a Baroness, was leader of Trafford from 2004-2009 and now heads the HS2 lobby group, the North West Rail Campaign.

She also sits on the board of Peel Group’s Atlantic Gateway, a long-term plan for a ribbon of development between Manchester and Liverpool along the Manchester Ship Canal.

Her seat in Parliament comes three years after she failed to become the MP for Bolton West.