A LONG-SERVING parish councillor is set to step down next month after 43 years in the role.

Gordon Holmes, chairman of Burn Parish Council, first took up a position in September 1967, and was thrown in at the deep end, with a campaign against a proposed ash tip on Burn Airfield.

Gordon, 73, said: “We formed a residents committee, and I was made chairman, to try and fight the planning application. With my work in the parish council, we had voices to fight them with, and managed to raise money for a public inquiry. It was meant to last three days, but ended up lasting one month. It was very much David and Goliath.”

As well as attending every day of the inquiry while friends looked after his farm, Gordon worked tirelessly in meetings to keep the village up to date on the events and proposed about 30 alternative sites before the plans were denied.

Gordon said the village had not changed much in the last 43 years, but he was proud of the changes he had helped introduce.

“We managed to get some traffic calming measures in the village - we were about the first in the county to get them. They’ve been modified over the years, and it’s very much better than it was, with speed limits reduced from 40 to 30 miles per hour, and an illuminated sign telling drivers their speed.”

Once he steps down in May, Gordon says he will stay involved with his farm, and with the village too. “I was born here, and lived here all my life. I love the village and a lot of the people here. It has been a chance to put something back into it.”