David Buckle arrived late for his first parish council meeting but he has gone on to complete half a century of work for his village - and he has no plans to retire.

For 50 years, his name has been synonymous with local government in the village of Radley, near Abingdon.

Mr Buckle, 75, a member and former chairman of Oxfordshire County Council, stood unsuccessfully for Parliament as a Labour candidate in strong Tory-held seats at Bournemouth and Banbury in the 1950s.

A war-time evacuee from Ramsgate, Mr Buckle worked on a farm at Radley before moving to the shopfloor at the Pressed Steel plant at Cowley, where he stayed for 14 years.

He moved into full-time union work, becoming the Oxford District Secretary of the Transport and General Workers Union. He retired from the union in 1988 but, far from putting his feet up, threw himself into local government at county and parish level.

He recalled: "Early in 1951 I was nominated to fill a vacancy on Radley Parish Council and was appointed. The minutes recorded I arrived late for my first meeting - not a good start - but I have been on the parish council ever since with the exception of one year."

The village population in 1951 was 1,235. It is now 2,257. There were 365 homes and now there are 927. Income in 1951 was £117 and expenditure £73. In the last financial year income was £49,358 with expenditure at £33,445.

Mr Buckle said: "Until the late 1950s we had no mains water supply or sewerage in Lower Radley. Water was drawn from wells and holes dug in our gardens for disposal of waste.

"There were no street lights so lighting became a major issue. Some people wanted lights, others did not, but in the end we installed 14 lights. And when they occasionally failed to light, the first people to complain were those who did not want them in the first place!"

In 1972, Radley College sold a 23-acre site at Peachroft Farm for housing. The council wanted Radley to remain a village and not become a suburb of Abingdon or Kennington. Now there is just one field between the two.

Then came another controversy when in 1974 Radley became part of Oxfordshire. That caused deep resenment in some quarters, said Mr Buckle: "Many villagers bitterly resented leaving Berkshire, and continued using Berkshire in their address.

In May 1991 Mr Buckle left the council having served 40 years, many of them as chairman, but returned in June the following year, to fill a vacancy and he is chairman once again.

He said: "Over the years it has been my pleasure to work with many dedicated and hard-working councillors, many of whom have made major contributions to the well-being of Radley.

"To me parish councils are real grass roots democracy. It has been a privilege to serve the people of Radley - and I hope to continue for a few more years yet!"