Ronnie Fearn steps down as a councillor after 52 years

Amazing years of public service:

Veteran Southport Liberal Democrat councillors Lord Ronnie Fearn and his sister-in-law Maureen are to step down as councillors at the May elections.

Lord Fearn, Sefton’s longest serving councillor and a two time Southport MP, celebrated half a century of public service in 2014. Cllr Maureen Fearn is a veteran councillor, three time Mayor of Sefton and long serving school governor at Meols Cop…

Lord Fearn was first elected to Southport county borough, and was leader of the of the Liberal Democrat group when Sefton Council was formed in 1974. He also sat on the old Merseyside County Council until it was dissolved by Margaret Thatcher.

He has sat in council chambers, the House of Commons and Lords, and watched the old Liberal Party transform into the SDP-Liberal Alliance and then into its current guise, the Liberal Democrats.

He was the town’s MP between 1987 and 1992 and then again between 1997 and 2001. [Southport Visiter]

For more on their record, see Southport Liberal Association – the first 100 years.