My friend Paul Hannon, who has died of prostate cancer aged 70, had an extraordinary record of public service extending over four decades. First elected to Berkshire county council in the early 1980s, he went on to lead Newbury district council in the 90s, became chair of planning at Newport city council in south Wales after his election in 2012, and in his retirement served first on Manorbier community council in Pembrokeshire and then on Fakenham town council in Norfolk.
Paul was born in Dublin to Michael Hannon, a french polisher, and Ivah (nee Hiscock), a clerical assistant. He went to St Joseph’s RC College in Croydon, Surrey, where he developed a profound but practical Roman Catholic faith that remained with him for the rest of his life. For a time he studied to be a vet at the Royal Veterinary College in London, but left without graduating to take up a job as a development officer with the anti-poverty charity War on Want.
Later he went on to be director of the British Association for the Hard of Hearing, chief executive of the Blue Cross animal welfare charity and international officer at the RSPB, before in his later years working as a political and planning consultant with a variety of consultancies.
Paul was a popular figure wherever he went; his wit, charm, diplomacy and sharp intelligence helped to defuse tensions and achieve solutions. In politics he had started out with the Young Liberals in the early 70s as editor of the radical magazine Liberator. A decade later he became chair of the Liberal party’s assembly committee, which organised the party’s annual conference. In that capacity he chaired the controversial defence debate at the Eastbourne assembly in 1986, which led to tensions with its then Alliance partners, the SDP.
He eventually lost faith in the Liberal Democrats in the 90s after his time as leader of Newbury district council, and after Tony Blair became Labour leader he saw the party as a viable route for his political beliefs, joining in 1995 and becoming their parliamentary candidate for Newbury at the 1997 general election, in which he came third. After a move to south Wales in 2009, he was elected as a Labour councillor in Newport.
Retirement took him and his wife, Siobhan McClelland, whom he had married in 2009, to Pembrokeshire, then Norfolk (where he rejoined the Lib Dems) and finally to Lincoln – just about the only place he did not become actively involved in local politics.
He is survived by Siobhan, two daughters, Eilis and Holly, from his first marriage, to Sally Hannon (nee Arnold), who died in 2007, four grand-children and his brother Roger.
