Flags fly at half mast for Maureen Fearn, Kew ward councillor from 1983 to 2016 and Mayor of Sefton three times. Council and Lib Dem leaders pay tribute.

Flags at Sefton Council buildings are flying at half mast for Maureen Fearn, who represented Kew ward in Southport for 33 years and was Mayor of Sefton three times. The council announced her death on Friday 4 September. (Sefton Council)

The council’s record of her service is precise. Mrs Fearn was a member of Sefton Metropolitan Borough Council for Kew ward from May 1983 until May 2016. She held the mayoralty in three separate years:

  • 1989/90
  • 2010/11
  • 2013/14

The council says her life of community service “dates back more than forty years across both Sefton Council and the Southport Corporation”, the authority that ran the town before Sefton was formed.

What the two party leaders said

Both tributes in the council’s statement come from serving councillors, and they come from opposite sides of the chamber.

Cllr John Pugh, leader of the Liberal Democrat group on Sefton Council, the group Mrs Fearn sat with, described her as a “no nonsense Lancastrian”.

“Anyone who met her seldom forgot her,” he said. “She personified traditional, down to earth, no nonsense, Lancastrian commonsense and values, delivered without fear, favour or affectation, and often with considerable insight. If ever there was a politician who told it to you straight, it was Maureen Fearn, though always coupled with an amused affection for humanity and its foibles.”

Cllr Marion Atkinson, the Labour leader of the council, said she had worked across the chamber from Mrs Fearn for five of those years. Cllr Atkinson represents Aintree and Maghull South, at the other end of the borough.

“Not only did Maureen serve the residents of Kew, Southport and Sefton Council with distinction for a period of 33 years, she was the Mayor of the Borough three times and would take charge of Council meetings with proud respect and tradition,” she said. “As she said herself upon retirement Maureen took office out of respect and decency for the public which she served. That is incredibly admirable.”

Three mayoralties, 24 years apart

Being Mayor of Sefton is a civic office rather than a political one. The Mayor chairs full council meetings, keeps order in the chamber and the public gallery, and represents the borough at official occasions.

Doing it three times is unusual. Mrs Fearn’s first term came six years after she was elected and her last came 24 years after that, so she presided over the borough’s council meetings in two different centuries.

Timeline of Maureen Fearn's service on Sefton Council: elected for Kew ward in May 1983, Mayor of Sefton in 1989/90, again in 2010/11, again in 2013/14, and stood down in May 2016 after 33 years.
Maureen Fearn's service on Sefton Council, as recorded in the council's own tribute.

Kew is one of the seven Sefton wards covering Southport, alongside Ainsdale, Birkdale, Cambridge, Duke’s, Meols and Norwood.

What it means for you

Sefton Council has not published funeral arrangements or details of a book of condolence. If either is announced, it will appear on the council’s news page.

The half mast flags apply to Sefton Council buildings, which in Southport includes the Town Hall, where the Cabinet met on 3 September.

The next full meeting of Sefton Council is on Thursday 17 September. The venue is not yet published on the council’s calendar. July’s meeting, the last one, was held at the Town Hall in Southport, and full council meetings are public, with the agenda, the reports pack, the minutes and a webcast all published on the council’s committee website. (Sefton Council, Council meetings)

For what the council is deciding about Southport now, our planning news page follows applications and outcomes across the borough.