Ottery town councillor and former long-standing mayor, Glyn Dobson, has resigned.

He had been with the council for around 17 years and was mayor from 2007 until 2018, with Ian Holmes as his deputy from 2008 onwards.

The pair worked together on several projects to benefit the town, and their legacy includes Ottery’s library, museum, current council offices and several community facilities.

Mr Holmes, who lost his seat in 2019, said: “Glyn was ‘for the people’ - he considered what the people of Ottery wanted.

“Whatever he did was never done for personal satisfaction or personal glory, it was all done for the people of Ottery.

“He used to run the paper shop in the town and he used to be a driving instructor, so he was a very well-known personality within the town, an awful lot of people knew him and respected him, and respected what he did as mayor.”

He described the securing of new premises for Ottery’s library in 2015, as ‘probably the highlight of our term’.

He said: “The library was going to close, and if we didn’t do something, Ottery would have no library.

“Glyn came up with this idea of buying the redundant NatWest Bank. I was not 100 per cent along with it to start with but he convinced me.

“It went to auction and the town council had enough money in the kitty to buy it and have it done up, working with Libraries Unlimited, and it’s a very successful library, one of the better ones in Devon.”

The library building also became the new premises for public toilets and the Tourist Information centre, both of which had closed.

The pair’s other achievements included moving the town council’s offices and police station to the Old Convent building, and establishing the Ottery Heritage Museum in the former town hall.

They developed the Strawberry Lane Recreation Ground and the Station community centre, and worked with councillors to organise countless events for the town.

Mr Holmes said: “We had a very good working relationship.

“We didn’t always agree, of course, but we came to a compromise in most cases and we never had arguments or fell out, we just got on with the job.”