Liberal Democrats Announce Death of Cllr John Beanse
Tuesday, October 7th, 2008 by Cllr Bob BelamLiberal Democrat councillor John Beanse, who represented the Hale End and Highams Park ward, has died suddenly at the age of 61 after a short illness.
John Beanse lived in the Chingford area all his life and was educated at Sir George Monoux Grammar School, where he very recently attended a reunion of ‘Old Monovians’. He went on to study Modern Languages at Cambridge before training to be a teacher at Goldsmith’s College. He enjoyed a distinguished career as a languages teacher and taught in the local area.
John became an active member of the Liberal Party in 1974 and was a regular attendee and contributor at party conferences and events. He was also an accredited speaker for the Electoral Reform Society. Until recently he was the Chair of the Chingford and Woodford Green Liberal Democrats, where he stood as the parliamentary candidate in the General Elections of 2001 and 2005.
A hard-working community activist prior to his election to Waltham Forest Council in 2006, he served as a Governor of two local schools and was previously the Chair of the local Community Health Council.
As the editor of the popular local ‘Focus’ leaflets he used advice surgeries and his long-running ‘Chingford and Woodford Green Blogspot’ webpage to keep residents up-to-date with local news.
Cllr Beanse took a keen interest in health issues, and after his election in 2006 he served on the Council as the Vice Chair of the Health, Adults and Older People Overview and Scrutiny sub-committee.
Amongst his other Council commitments, he chaired the Council Joint Consultative Committee and also sat on the Performance Improvement Committee, the Teachers Joint Committee and the Waltham Forest Tenants Council.
In his spare time he enjoyed travel and walking holidays, and he regularly gave talks to various travel groups.
The Leader of the Liberal Democrat Group on Waltham Forest Council, Cllr John Macklin, said that the news had come as “a huge shock to all of Cllr Beanse’s many friends and colleagues”.
Cllr Macklin continued:
“John was an incredibly hard-working and committed community activist both in his time as a councillor and as a lifelong local resident.
“He always had residents best interests at heart and his local knowledge and enormous abilities as a councillor will be hugely missed by the Liberal Democrats, Waltham Forest Council and the residents on whose behalf he worked so conscientiously”.
