The sad passing of Cllr Stuart Earl leaves a huge hole in the many organisations and causes he drove. It also robs us of a friend and colleague who dedicated his life to civic duty in his community. 

I recall getting a call from a constituent, and resident in Stuart’s Little Common ward, who was rightly concerned about the dangers of crossing the A259 outside her home. Realising I could quickly fit in a visit a few hours later, I dropped Stuart an email out of politeness to invite him along. Not only did he join, he had spent the previous hour assessing the traffic and working out what he could do to campaign for a fix. This is typical of the many meetings and visits which we held together, despite him being an Independent and me being a Conservative. Party politics was not important to Stuart in this regard. It was all about working together to get the job done for the community. 

Such was the regularity with which I would see Stuart at various charities and organisations for whom he so tirelessly worked, I initially thought he had a few identical siblings. He will be hugely missed. It is down to those of us who worked with him to carry on the many causes which he had on his list. Only illness stopped him from delivering.