T OWN Councillor Stewart Dobson’s decades of dedication to Marlborough have been recognised with an engraved gold medal for his of 40 years of service.

Former Marlborough Mayor Tony Gray presented Coun Dobson with the award from the people of Marlborough at the Mayor making ceremony.

Coun Dobson, who is married to fellow councillor Marian Hannaford Dobson, is the longest serving Marlborough town councillor has held the position for longer than any other councillor in the last 50 years and is thought to be the longest standing in the last century.

He said: “I’ve been on the town council since it started. It was a total surprise, I was very touched.

“I’d seen the agenda for the meeting and then suddenly they said Tony Gray was going to stand up and say something and I thought ‘that’s funny’.

“I can’t believe Marian kept it a secret, she didn’t let on a thing I didn’t suspect a thing and even when Tony rang me up and was asking me questions.

“He was obviously in hindsight checking on some facts but I didn’t twig.”

Coun Dobson first got involved with local politics 43 years ago when he joined the Borough Council at the age of 25 when he was running a Ford dealership in the town.

He said: “When I joined the Borough Council there were three of us that were under 30 and about another three that were under 40 but sadly we don’t have that anymore.

“I got involved because I was in the family business and I decided to go along to Chamber of Commerce meetings and we were discussing things about Marlborough and I thought if we’re going to change anything we’ve got to be on the Borough Council.

“The Borough Council was very much a bigger organisation than the Town Council and it was very interesting.”

Since then he has been mayor twice, last serving in 1999, was on the Kennet District Council and now represents Marlborough East on Wiltshire Council.

He was also mayoress last year when his wife served a mayor.

“There is always fresh challenges,”he said.

“People say ‘you’ve seen it all before’ but the truth of the matter is there is always something new and fresh coming up.”