David Lloyd still passionate about campaigning in Shropshire at 83

At the age of 83 he has just agreed to continue for another term as the speaker of Shropshire Council and as councillor for Gobowen, Selattyn and Weston Rhyn.

He also serves on several committees on the unitary authority and is a regular visitor to his parish council,where he began his involvement in 1964.

During his 51 years in local government he has been mayor of the old Oswestry Borough Council, chairman of Shropshire Health Authority and a Conservative candidate for both the European and the United Kingdom Parliaments as well as being awarded an MBE.

Councillor Lloyd shows no signs of slowing down either, saying he wants to protect Shropshire from the wrong type of development, to see Britain produce more of its own food – and to encourage more young people to become involved in local government and politics.

He was only 33 when he was co-opted onto the Selattyn and Gobowen Parish Council.

"As a journalist I reported on many council meetings and realised that you can make more of a difference in the council that on the outside," he said.

He managed to combine his role as a councillor with his career in journalism and the media. It was the latter that saw him being awarded an MBE, for his work during the foot and mouth crisis that hit Shropshire in 1967.

He was working for the National Farmers' Union, something close to his heart as a son of a farming family. When the first case of foot and mouth hit Oswestry it quickly turned into a national crisis.

Receiving media calls from all over the world he went down to the command centre at Oswestry Police Station to find out information and ended up fronting the global media exercise often working round the clock.

He said: "I shall never forget that time. The countryside shut down, it was silent. There were no cows to be heard, no sheep. Oswestry was a ghost town and when you drove up to the high ground in Pant all you could see were flames across the Shropshire plain as the cattle were burned."

He was elected to Oswestry Borough Council in 1976 and Shropshire County Council in 1977 and one of his proudest times was serving as mayor to the former in 1985, seeing it as an honour for both himself and his late wife, Joan.

"She was a shy person but did so much, taking calls for me and often able to pass on advice herself because she took and interest in the councils," he said.

"She was like a shadow councillor – we made a very good team, a double act."

Another important time was when he served as the county representative on Shropshire Health Authority and the West Midlands Regional Health Authority. When chairman of the SHA from 1990 to 1996 he found himself mending fences between the two bodies and levering desperately needed money from the regional board.

"Shropshire was in a financial mess with a £2million deficit a massive sum 20 years ago," he said.

He also oversaw the beginnings of changes to mental health care.

"Shelton Hospital was almost Dickensian at that time and we were able to close the larger wards and provide something more human in their place."

His forays into national politics proved unsuccessful losing to Labour's Ann Clwyd in the Euro elections and the then president of Plaid Cymru Dafydd Elis Thomas as Conservative parliamentary candidate in Meirionnydd Nant Conwy in 1983.

"I have no regrets, I thoroughly enjoyed the campaigning and was up against formidable opposition," he said.

In fact he says he has enjoyed every chapter of his time in local government – including his role today as speaker.

"Fairness is the key and if I can evoke a smile, so much the better. I stick to the rules but I do have discretion and if needed I will use it. I enjoy a good debate and am keen to ensure that everyone has the chance to get involved," he added.

"I think we should encourage more public participation., particularly from younger people. Perhaps we need to look at social media as well as our youth parliament.

"Our battle today is with planning. I understand there is an urgent need for more housing, but we have a duty to defend our countryside and we also have to produce our own food.

"There may well come a time when the people in the new houses will have to depend on places like Shropshire much more for their food."