Former Kettering mayor retires from council

A former mayor of Kettering has retired from her role as a councillor after almost 14 years.

Cllr June Derbyshire, who represented the Desborough Loatland ward, has stepped down from Kettering Council with immediate effect due to ill health.

She was first elected at the May 2007 local elections and had been re-elected ever since.

June also served as a Desborough town councillor for much of the same time before resigning en masse with other Conservative councillors in a row between the authority and town residents.

She was deputy mayor and then mayor of the borough of Kettering for the 2015-16 municipal year, raising £1,653 during her year of office for the benefit of her two charities, the Make a Wish Foundation and Muscular Dystrophy UK.

Before becoming a councillor she spent many years as a social worker.

Chairman of Kettering Conservatives, Cllr Mark Rowley said: “June is much loved and respected by her fellow councillors and was always passionate about representing her constituents.

"June will be sorely missed and I wish her well in her retirement.”

A spokesman for the Kettering Constituency Conservative Association said June was "rightly proud" of the help she has given to numerous groups through her Empowering Councillor funds distribution.

They said: "June will be fondly remembered by her colleagues at both town and borough level, with whom she worked closely. We wish June a very peaceful and healthy retirement."