Robbie Fenton RIP – A great former local councillor

 

 

My friend Robbie Fenton died last Saturday, she was 84 and had been in poor health for quite a long time. She passed away in Lakeside Care Home in Southport where I visited her in her final weeks. I must say that the care home staff were really great, welcoming and caring during my visits.

Robbie was born in Maghull (on Northway, if I recall correctly), went to Ormonde High Secondary Modern School (now Maghull High) from the day it opened (September 1954) and lived for all the years I knew her on Haigh Crescent in neighbouring Lydiate. She participated in the formal opening ceremony of Ormonde High a year later in 1955 and a while back showed me the pamphlet produced about that notable event.

Whilst she was well, helping others was in Robbie’s blood so it’s no surprise that she spent many years on our local councils – Maghull Town Council, Lydiate Parish Council (both with her husband Tony who died a couple of years ago) and Sefton Borough Council – Park Ward (1997 – 2012).

What I noticed most about Robbie in her council days was how she’d be like a terrier trying to resolve problems brought to her attention. She wasn’t one for writing letters or sending emails but wanted to speak to people and council officials directly on the phone. She was persistent too, yet the council officers she pushed along seemed to like her, as did the residents she tried to help.

 

She campaigned for an improved health centre in Maghull; sadly a campaign that is still to be won. She battled to try to stop the closure of Lydiate Ambulance Station and of course she tried to defend the Green Belt around Maghull & Lydiate, but it was the small everyday matters that were Robbie’s bread and butter – pot holes, overgrown trees, uncut grass, litter etc. where her terrier-like approach usually got the job done.

 

I’ll miss my chats with Robbie. In her latter years I would stop and talk to her a couple of times each week whilst on my daily cycle rides. She would always ask after other folk whom we both knew and she clearly worried about those in poor health or difficult circumstances.