AN Ongar politician is standing down from Essex County Council after almost a quarter of a century in office.
Tory Gerard McEwen, 84, who represents the Ongar and Rural electoral division, will step down at the next county council elections on May 2.
Mr McEwen was chairman of the council between 2006 and 2008 and hopes to be succeeded by his wife Maggie, 74, an Epping Forest district councillor who is the Conservative candidate for the forthcoming poll.
The father of two, from Willingale Road, was first elected on to the county council in 1989.
His main motivation for standing at the time was to protest against plans to build the A414 through High Ongar.
He has been a parish councillor for High Ongar since 1977 and vows to continue in this role despite his retirement from County Hall.
The former businessman's principal interest in politics has always been on matters of strategic planning.
Mr McEwen joined the fight to stop a third London airport (at the time) being built at Willingale and subsequent campaigns to block development at Stansted.
When he originally took over from former Ongar resident Joan Martin in 1989, who also coincidentally stood for 24 years, he had no idea his tenure would last this long.
He said: "Being realistic, you have to say now's the time for me to call it a day at this sort of age. It wouldn't be fair on everyone else for me to carry on too long."
His list of responsibilities at the County Council include chairman of the County Planning Committee, which saw him represent Essex on the South East Regional Assembly and later for the newly defined eastern region and chairman of the Development Control Committee until he was elected council vice-chairman in 2004.
At present, Mr McEwen has a seat on Essex Fire Authority and is vice-chairman of the Economic Development, Environment & Highways Policy and Scrutiny Committee.
He said: "I have made so many good friends over the years through doing this and I tried my best to go to parish council meetings as regularly as I could.
"I would like to offer my thanks to them all for supporting me during my time and I am very keen to stay in touch."
He added: "If my wife goes on for 24 years I'm going to be doing the housework for that long because I've always said we would swap roles."
